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Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

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Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#411

Post by synetic »

carlosjobim wrote: post #369
forgetfreeman wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it any different? Are you serious? For the overwhelming majority of our time on this planet communications were limited to word of mouth over geographically limited areas. Now it is trivial for any form of bullshit to spread worldwide in minutes. The stakes have changed.

This change came already with the invention of radio. We have a century of radio and TV propaganda of the absolutely vilest kind behind us already. At least now there is an exchange with the instant communications, not only one-way.

It did not already come as you say. We are in a new era. It is now very easy to target specific people over a wide geographic region and to do so cheaply. It is easy for bad actors to hone in on those susceptible to the false beliefs they peddle. Hence the rise of morons who won’t vaccinate their children. I’ve read that around 50 percent of the posts online are bot driven. Soon that percentage will be a lot bigger. This is an era of easy, cheap, targeted messaging. It’s an era where we will mostly exist in information bubbles whose messages cater to what we are most susceptible to being influenced by.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#412

Post by dqh »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #395
mkl wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of them was Albert Einstein: "The words of the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought." -- https://www.creativitypost.com/article/aping_einstein#:~:tex... Your comment seems like a non sequitur.

Wow, it’s a sourced quote too (rare for Einstein on the internet). How do you write a paper without thinking in words? I need to talk to someone who doesn’t think in words, I just can’t believe it otherwise.

For me it’s almost like ‘seeing’ or ‘knowing’ the ‘shape’ of things and the relationships between them. Translating to words is sort of a seperate step at output. It’s difficult for me to describe.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#413

Post by nologic01 »

The online world is getting increasingly dystopic while the offline world is being deprecated at rapid pace.

The article is part of that dystopia, the collapsing trust, the lack of honest, down to earth discussion of what is going on.

There is no AI, there are algorithms and data and people angling for advantage to both privileged collection of data and unencumbred application of algos to affect people's lives.

In sense there is nothing much new just an intensification that has been carefully choreographed into a mass hysteria.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#414

Post by ben_w »

aerfio wrote: post #381
mrtranscendence wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems insane to me. I'm always chattering away up there, I can't imagine it otherwise.

For me it's insane that some people "talk" to themselves in their heads, expressing your ideas as words seems so slow in comparison to "thinking in ideas"

I can think in ideas pure non-verbal ideas, and have on occasion noticed that my inner monologue is just describing the idea I've already had.

When I try to shortcut the monologue on the grounds I already know what I'm thinking about, it feels wrong.

This hasn't been much of a problem recently, possibly because my inner monologue has sped up to match that I watch and listen to YouTube and podcasts and audiobooks in ~ double speed.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#415

Post by brayhite »

pjerem wrote: post #379
personjerry wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50 years ago humans weren't prepared for a smartphone, internet "post-connected" world and here we are. We adapt and grow.

No hasty conclusions. We switched to this always connected world only 10-15 years ago and I think we are far from having seen all the consequences. Algorithmic bubbles, mass surveillance, addictive algorithms and applications are fairly recent and we can already see really disgusting consequences. Our civilization is resilient so it takes time to erode but since a few years, I have hard time imagining a positive tech…

Yeah, I’m not so sure we can say we’ve “adapted” to this world. In my opinion, we aren’t ready for the future with AI because we haven’t yet figured out today’s world without its prevalence.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#417

Post by yusefnapora »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #395
mkl wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of them was Albert Einstein: "The words of the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought." -- https://www.creativitypost.com/article/aping_einstein#:~:tex... Your comment seems like a non sequitur.

Wow, it’s a sourced quote too (rare for Einstein on the internet). How do you write a paper without thinking in words? I need to talk to someone who doesn’t think in words, I just can’t believe it otherwise.

Well, I can do math, but I very rarely "think in mathematics." Rather, I approach most math problems linguistically, by essentially making up a little word problem in my head and reasoning through it. However, I know other people who approach math in a completely different way. They seem to have an intuitive "calculating sense," and only use language "after the fact" to record the result or explain it to others.

So in the same sense that I can use math without it being central to my thinking, it doesn't seem hard to believe that others can use language without it being central to their thinking.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#418

Post by bcrl »

machina_ex_deus wrote: post #408
bcrl wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yesterday Youtube served me up an ad for an "AI" algorithmic trading service "only available to Canadians" and "backed by Elon Musk. It used "AI" generated audio and video of Musk to peddle an unregistered securities trading firm that tries to prey on the uninformed. That video is clearly disinformation / misinformation. There is zero chance that video would be played on a conventional broadcaster. Why? They ha…

So you assume your fellow humans are stupid and will fall for this crap, and must be protected at all costs including the cost of regulation preventing speech? By the way, how's that scammer SBF doing? I heard he managed to scam even more money than that funny YouTube ad, and I think he was advertising on mainstream media too. Even got to lobby in Congress. This is still far from the leading mainstream narrative that…

I have no expectation that everyone will fall for it, but I've seen my own elderly father get confused and drawn into scam ads. My irritation is that what little accountability in advertising that existed in the past is now gone, and that "platforms" are failing the general public by allowing these things to propagate.

Put a button in the corner of the ad that says "report this", and get a human to check if the ad passes a smell test. If a platform can cancel accounts of random people for violating policies at random, they can put a small amount of effort into enforcing policies on advertisers.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#419

Post by pxc »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #398
jackjeff wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I had no idea that was a thing. I thought that’s just something they do in movies. But I don’t have a mind’s eye either (aphantasia). So I guess that’s on brand for me. That doesn’t mean I can’t “talk to myself” in a way or think about stuff. I just have no auditory sensation whatsoever. It’s just abstract/immaterial reasoning. I’d wager if I did an FMRI the audio part would not light up but the speech part woul…

You don’t have visual dreams? If I say “pink elephant,” you don’t one? Or better yet, if i say “Dumbo,” you don’t see the ears? You don’t hear songs in your head? If I write “I’ll be back” you don’t hear it now in a thick German accent? Inconceivable! (As they say)

For me, the aural examples you gave are much more vivid than the visual ones. Some people have one of those forms of imagination but not the other at all!

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#420

Post by machina_ex_deus »

synetic wrote: post #407
machina_ex_deus wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disinformation is the narrative constructed by crumbling authorities of mainstream media desperately trying to preserve their power. You might think like their narrative is "think critically, and consider everything critically". But the actual message is, your fellow humans are stupid, they fall for misinformation and fake sources. Ignore all alternative sources of information and most importantly, do not trust your…

I think a great many people are actually stupid and easily lead astray. There are large numbers of people who won’t vaccinate their children (not talking about Covid vaccine). Such a person is either stupid or a victim of misinformation. Humans are easily persuadable. This is particularly true with a group of people echoing who feel slighted or are angry about some perceived injustice. The mob mentality is real and i…

And my general experience with anti vaxers is that they generally look into more resources and research and put much more thoughts into their decisions than a regular person. Which I generally view as a positive quality. I put much more value on the process by which a person reached his decisions than whether they were correct in one particular instance.

Whether I agree with their final conclusion is irrelevant, I can't with straight face call a person who spent his time carefully considering his decisions less intelligent than a person who didn't spend a single moment to think about it. Even if they reached the wrong conclusion.

It's actually hilarious that you call them mob mentality. Going with the herd automatically is the most mob mentality possible.

Have you tried talking to Trump supporters before you assumed they are "cult" and "mob"?

You're exactly the kind of person I directed my post at. You've been successfully fooled into thinking other people are stupid without even trying to understand them.

And for the record, I think flat earthers are more intelligent than people who never even asked themselves how do we know that the earth is spherical. They are not intelligent because they couldn't understand the answer, but they are more intelligent than a person who never even asked the question.

The people I consider more intelligent than flat earthers tried asking this question, looked for the solution and could understand basic geometry enough to understand why it is true. Anyone else isn't more intelligent, just more conformal and knowledgeable. In the case of knowing the earth is flat, it's such well known fact it's just pure conformity never asking why, and I don't value that at all. It's not an intelligent trait.

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