BranBucket
@BranBucket@lemmy.world
- Comment on 35-year-old brings in around $60,000 a year and lives rent-free by pet sitting full time—everything they own fits in 2 suitcases 4 days ago:
I don’t need much. I honestly don’t. I prefer quality and things that appeal to my interest over quantity. I’ve lived in dorms, hotels, and temp housing before. If it’s just me, I can be comfortable and content in an average single bedroom apartment. I’d maybe prefer some outside storage or and work space, but I don’t need a three car garage. Although opinions vary on what constitutes enough, I’m good with having “just enough”.
But, I don’t think I’d enjoy this.
Having a small space of my own seems like it’s pretty essential to my feeling secure and satisfied. Thinking about being constantly on the move, even with the ability to take all my possessions with me, gives me a sort of creeping anxiety and disquiet.
Part of it is that it feels invasive to me to live in other’s homes. Oddly enough, I don’t mind having someone in my space, but I’d be walking on eggshells if I did the same. I know that no housing is truly secure in the US economy, but this feels far too impermanent and far too at risk of going wrong.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 5 days ago:
I’m not even certain that we even disagree on the fundamental principle, just the details of the example I gave.
- Comment on What's the point of specifically Americans identifying with other cultures if people born there will just make fun of them for it? 6 days ago:
Slightly off topic, but does anyone have experience with there being a tradition of researching family histories and genealogy among later generation immigrant families in nations outside the US?
I’ve had multiple friends and relations start researching their family history with the intent of finding the first ancestor to immigrate to the US and their country of origin. As some others have said, I don’t believe these people consider themselves to truly be a part of that culture, but it’s a fun bit of personal trivia and some fresh new traditions to explore, so it gets talked about.
I wonder if that’s universal, or if it could be more of a phenomenon in the US and contributing to what the OP is observing.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 6 days ago:
One more time: We aren’t examining how the average English speaker would interpret this, only the reasons why the priest’s answer might change.
This has been interesting. Good luck to you. =)
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 6 days ago:
The question, in both cases, involves smoking while praying. The priest never looks at, or gives a judgement on smoking in general, there’s no reason to assume the priest would forbid smoking in other circumstances.
The question does change, but not as fundamentally as you’re claiming it does. The information presented in both questions remains the same, only the word order changes, which changes how the priest perceives that information.
Anyway, good luck out there. =)
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 6 days ago:
Why would the answer be no? Who cares if you smoke while doing a cartwheel? Who said the priest would forbid such a thing?
In both situations, a man is asking about the propriety of praying while inhaling the smoke from a cigarette. That’s vital information.
The information does matter to the smoker and the priest. We’re not teasting these statements for validity and we’re not making our own judgements. We’re examining why the priest’s answer might have changed. That’s all.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 6 days ago:
Those aren’t the same questions from the original post. You’ve omitted half the information given to the priest in each question.
Both questions, in their entirety, deal with smoking and praying. The subject is smoking and praying. You’ve reframed this as a question about smoking, and a question about praying and that was never the case.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 6 days ago:
I didn’t strip all context from the scenario. I defined the context. It’s just not the context you believe I should be using. You keep adding something that was never in my original post, then arguing against what you yourself added to try invalidate the exercise on the basis of your personal interpretation. Sorry, but that’s missing the point by a wide margin and I feel it’s a waste of time.
Otherwise it becomes like the trolley problem.
Yes. That is exactly what it’s meant to be like and precisely what I’ve been saying.
Just like the trolley problem, it’s a self-contained thought exercise. But instead of illustrating a difficult ethical choice, it demonstrates a point about language shaping reasoning.
There’s nothing to be won or lost by including outside context or narrowly defining the meaning of each word to prove what is or isn’t contradictory. This isn’t an argument over what the language means. Your personal interpretation of the language is irrelevant, it’s the priest and/or the smoker’s interpretation that matters. The singular point is for you to consider how and why their answer changes.
If you believe their answer changes because they interpreted the meaning of those words differently due to the order in which they were given, that’s valid. If you believe, like I do, that the answer changes because their reasoning was shallow and contradictory, also valid. If you believe the answer didn’t change and the smoker misunderstood, once again, valid. What conclusion can we draw here, what’s common to all of these? They all show that changing the question changes our thought process and how we interpret meaning.
If you dislike my example this much, create your own. It makes no difference to me.
Just invent your own scenario where changes to the way a question is phrased leads a person to two different and contradictory conclusions, and use that example to examine how language can shape our reasoning. That’s all we need here. Digressions on language, meaning, Boolean logic, and speaking to infants only cloud the issue.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
We’re getting very forest for the trees here.
It’s a thought experiment, a controlled imaginary environment used to illustrate a point. It’s supposed to be isolated from outside contex to make that point clearer. It’s purely hypotheical and comes self contained with all the context it needs. We’re testing one metaphorical variable, so that our results aren’t muddled. You just went and added another half dozen for the sake of argument…
Prayer is prayer in this context. No other meaning. There are no types of prayer in this particular sect, focus is irrelevant. Is it against God’s will to smoke while you pray? Can you answer that question, yes or no, based off the priest’s answers?
The fact that the priest, parishioner, and the typical intended audience for this particular hypothetical don’t do the kind of analysis you’ve worked up here is really a large part of what this particular thought experiment is trying to illuminate, don’t you think?
I agree with that.
Good. =)
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
This is also part of my broader gripe with social media, cable news, and the current media landscape in general. They use so many sneaky little psychological hooks to keep you plugged in that I honestly believe it’s screwing with our heads to the point of it being a public health crisis.
People are already frazzled and beat down by the onslaught of dopamine feedback loops and outrage bait, then you go and get them hooked on a charbot that feeds into every little neurosies they’ve developed and just sinks those hooks in even deeper and it’s no wonder some people are having a mental health crisis.
A lot of us vastly overestimate our resistance to having our heads jacked with and it worries me.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
And this is hard for me, actually. Because of my work background and the jargon used, I’m unconsciously negative about things a lot of the time. It’s a tough habit to break.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
Thanks!
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
Absolutely, and the medium can make a huge difference as well. I suspect that there’s something about chatbots and the medium of their messages that helps set those hooks extra deep in people.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
It’s more about how the slightly different questions lead the hypothetical priest to two separate and contradictory conclusions than disrespecting God.
At any rate, all opinions on tobacco and prayer are fine by me, just watch out for any friends you think might be talking to chatbots a little too much.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
But in both cases, the person is asking to do the same thing. The order of the words in the sentence doesn’t change the end result, we always wind up with someone smoking and praying simultaneously, which may or may not be against God’s will.
Strip away the justifications and simplify the word choices and you get this:
- May I smoke while I pray? No, you may not.
- May I pray while I smoke? Yes, you may.
Given that, can you say if it is right or wrong to smoke and pray simultaneously?
And again, this is just a hypothetical scenario. In the broader context of life, religion, and tobacco use, it’ll never be this simple, but it works for an example.
Now, someone might point out that by simplifying the wording, I’ve changed the meaning of the original statement to make it fit my argument, and that now it means something else. But that’s essentially my original point, phrasing and word choices can shape our reasoning, though pricesses, and how we interpret meaning in ways we aren’t immediately aware of, leading us to different conclusions or even delusional thinking in some cases.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
It’s the opinion on smoking, not praying, that differs.
In both cases you’re praying and smoking at the same time, so your actions don’t change, but the priest rationalizes two completely different answers based on the way the question is posed. It’s just an example to show how two contradictory answers can seem rational to the same person.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
I guess my point is that I have a very hard time relating to this.
That’s fair. In the same vein, you might find a priest that tells you to stop smoking for your health no matter how you phrase the question about lighting up and prayer. What people are receptive to is going to vary.
I’d like argue that more of us are susceptible to this sort of thing than we suspect, but that’s not really something that can be proved or disproved. What seems pretty certain is that at least some of us are at risk, and given all the other downsides of chatbots, it’d be best to regulate them in a hurry.
- Comment on Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion 1 week ago:
People don’t often realize how subtle changes in language can change our thought process. It’s just how human brains work sometimes.
The old bit about smoking and praying is a great example. If you ask a priest if it’s alright to smoke when you pray, they’re likely to say no, as your focus should be on your prayers and not your cigarette. But if you ask a priest if it’s alright to pray a little while you’re smoking, they’d probably say yes, as you should feel free to pray to God whenever you need…
Now, make a machine that’s designed to be agreeable, relatable, and make persuasive arguments but that can’t separate fact from fiction, can’t reason, has no way of intuiting it’s user’s mental state beyond checking for certain language parameters, and can’t know if the user is actually following it’s suggestions with physical actions or is just asking for the next step in a hypothetical process. Then make machine try to keep people talking for as long as possible…
You get one answer that leads you a set direction, then another, then another… It snowballs a bit as you get deeper in. Maybe something shocks you out of it, maybe the machine sucks you back in. The descent probably isn’t a steady downhill slope, it rolls up and down from reality to delusion a few times before going down sharply.
Are we surprised some people’s thought processes and decision making might turn extreme when exposed to this? The only question is how many people will be affected and to what degree.
- Comment on California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including Linux and SteamOS — user age verified during OS account setup 1 week ago:
Because it’s a metric, a bullet point, and campaign speech fodder. Newsome thinks of his position in terms of a career rather than an office, his job isn’t to lead a nation towards what’s right or wrong, it’s to pander so that he can be re-elected or elected to higher office.
The bullshit way that lobbying groups conduct polling and market research means they he’s chronically out of touch and that his focus is on perpetuating his time in office so he can continue to “represent the people”, making a calling out of bowing to the desires of the mis-informed, outraged, panicked mob he believes his electorate to be instead of actually having a spine and exercising good judgement.
The consequences of shoddy legislation take second place to being able to declare he did something to “keep kids safe”. It doesn’t even have to work, all that matters is having something to wave around and back up that claim. Something to placate the plebeians and let him continue to do what he does best… listen to lobbyist who are lying about what people think.
Why? Because that’s what gets people elected these days. Despite being on a foundation of pure bullshit, somehow it works. So he goes along with it, encourages it, and remains in office as a result.
- Comment on Banning children from VPNs and social media will erode adults' privacy 1 week ago:
Algorithm-based, ad supported social media is a public health crisis and damages people of all ages. It should be destroyed. At that point we don’t have to worry about it’s effect on kids or them using VPNs to circumvent age restrictions.
Seems like a more effective solution to me.
- Comment on AI Is Destroying Grocery Supply Chains 2 weeks ago:
When smart home thermostats and light switches were still a new thing, I used to talk about “Jurassic Park Tech” as in too worried about whether or not they could… and that’s even more the case with AI.
At some point I think this gets to be like S. M. Stirling’s Emberverse, where modern tech stops working and people who know how to make traditional wooden bows become an extremely valuable resource. Except it’ll be having some old-timer on hand who’s able to handle logistics with just spreadsheet, a Rolodex, and a calendar that’s going make or break companies.
- Comment on Without hierarchies/authority figures, the bootlickers would be totally lost. 🤠 2 weeks ago:
Helps if your world view is shaped by people who are continually telling you that he’s a figure of manliness, while continually playing off your fear and insecurity for profit and political gain.
- Comment on Without hierarchies/authority figures, the bootlickers would be totally lost. 🤠 2 weeks ago:
Fear.
They rally around figures who look strong because they’re afraid of losing social status, or feeling xenophobia due to racism, or insecure over economic concerns. As always, everything is projection with these dipshits. They let fear drive them into the sort of groupthink mob they accuse liberals of being.
- Comment on It should be a strict rule 3 weeks ago:
People are dicks sometimes.
- Comment on It should be a strict rule 3 weeks ago:
Tulsa. Bell’s Amusement Park.
- Comment on It should be a strict rule 3 weeks ago:
We used to have a small, locally owned amusement park.
This exact thing happened. The little bungalow homes in the neighborhood around it became trendy. People moved in, complained about the noise from the park’s main attraction, a classic wooden rollercoaster that had been an area landmark for DECADES, and badgered the city council about it until they limited the place’s operating hours and it went out of business.
I still get absolutely livid if I talk about it for too long.
- Comment on Meta patents AI that takes over a dead person’s account to keep posting and chatting 3 weeks ago:
This is fucking awful.
- Comment on Trigger warning - This Epstein stuff is making me sick... 3 weeks ago:
Then you do get it to a degree, hopefully.
Look, so, I know I came across as dismissive in my first reply, but you’re also coming across as really condescending. Not sure if you’re aware, but if your intent is to reach out with empathy and understanding, you might want to consider that.
I get it. I’ve been reaching out to people for more than 30 years and watching them consistently go against their best interests for about the same amount of time. A little cynicism is natural.
I’m sure in a face to face we’d probably agree on most things, but this conversation doesn’t feel productive. Thanks for taking the time to reply and good luck out there.
- Comment on Trigger warning - This Epstein stuff is making me sick... 3 weeks ago:
When you say this, I can’t help but wonder if you’ve seen firsthand the immense levels of anxiety in working-class, blue-collar families as the failures of this system become undeniable and they are indeed unable to understand exactly what to do about it.
I’m part of one of those families. I’ve lived among them my whole life. It’s not a moral judgement, just an observation on human behavior. And I was talking about those in the suburbs more than my own neighborhood.
- Comment on Trigger warning - This Epstein stuff is making me sick... 3 weeks ago:
They believe they’re financially comfortable and not in any danger as long as they only make sad noises and wring their hands about “the issues we face” and “problems that need to be fixed”. They still rely on being a cog in the system to eat, so they can’t really bring themselves to bite the hand just yet.
They won’t get angry until they realize it’s their retirement, lives, and children at risk. Even then, they’ll rationalize a lack of action due to “powerlessness”, conveniently forgetting that the first step is organization, not leaping onto action as an individual and getting steamrolled.