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We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

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Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#311

Post by zahlman »

kylecazar wrote: post #159

AI is incapable of solving loneliness. It's a biological signal we have (thanks to evolution) to seek social connections with other humans , for things like reproduction and survival. Mentally healthy people will never be less lonely as long as they know they are talking to a model. All it can offer is a distraction and an illusion, because it has no humanity. Note: I don't even think dogs solve loneliness. They can…

> Mentally healthy people will never be less lonely as long as they know they are talking to a model

A lot of people are not mentally healthy.

And then there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_effect.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#312

Post by janderson215 »

HPsquared wrote: post #300
roncesvalles wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking outdoors (let alone at a public park) is just not a thing outside Europe.

Literally illegal in many places. Edit: including much of Europe.

Which in itself is a crime, IMO.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#313

Post by gchamonlive »

djeastm wrote: post #291
yunwal wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you going to do when you retire by 40 and all your friends (and s/o) are still working? I don’t really understand the appeal.

You can't think of anything you'd want to do with your daytime hours other than work?

Have you tried doing anything other than work that isn't consuming something?

I have, from drawing to music, from writing novels to doing programming projects on my free time.

It's not very fun, you aren't good at most of it and it's very frustrating. It's also very rewarding being able to overcome limitations and building up skills. But it's first and foremost very demanding. You can't expect someone that just got retired to suddenly spark in creative energy, even if they intimately wanted to do everything.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#314

Post by foobarian »

jjulius wrote: post #272
IgorPartola wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d like to offer an alternative explanation than AI to this. Shit is just too damn expensive. If you want to go hang out with friends it will cost you $4-8 for a cup of coffee. A dinner starts at $50/person. A trip to an amusement park is over $100 easily. The median individual income in the US currently is just over $65k/year or about $32.50/hour. That means half the workforce makes less than that. When an 8oz cock…

> A dinner starts at $50/person. I went to dinner with a friend last night and my meal was $22. I go to lunch with coworkers and often only spend ~$15-ish. One also doesn't need to do activities that cost money in order to hang out with people one knows. Get together and play board games or cards. I hung out with my friends last weekend - we brought our records over and DJ'd, someone brought some frozen burgers, I su…

> my meal was $22

Including tax and tip?

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#315

Post by aradox66 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #290
miki123211 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as long as they know they are talking to a model Any evidence for this? It's obvious that a sufficiently advanced AI could solve loneliness if it was allowed to present as human, you just wouldn't know it isn't one. I'm entirely unconvinced that something which seems human in all respects couldn't replace one, even if your brain knows that it's actually AI.

A sufficiently advanced ai that tricks humans would be a human life itself…

caught in the wild, the moving goalposts of the Turing test

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#316

Post by carlosjobim »

roncesvalles wrote: post #279
anal_reactor wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. Most people can afford grabbing a beer in a supermarket and going to the park. They just choose not to. I think the real change is that nowadays it's just easier and more practical NOT to maintain friendships. Yes, it's lonely, but it's more efficient.

Drinking outdoors (let alone at a public park) is just not a thing outside Europe.

How about a public beach?

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#317

Post by jatins »

glimshe wrote: post #59

I believe that AI can't ever replace direct human contact. But I'm not so sure if a good AI can't replace superficial online-only friendships. Looking at the bulk of my online interactions (outside forums like this one), they largely end in trivia (did you know...) or low effort agreement. An AI could play that role admirably.

It won't be a replacement for humans but will it be as good as, say, pets in terms of providing companionship?

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#318

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

gonzobonzo wrote: post #248
johnfn wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy this explanation. There are plenty of things you can do together that don't cost very much - or anything at all. You can go take a hike. You can go to the park and hang out, or play a board game. You can go to a court and play pickleball. Heck, go to the library! All these things are free and many people do them.

Or even just...call a friend for a chat. Few people are interested in that these days. A few decades ago, you'd even see media where people were chatting on house phones so much that different people in one house would fight over the phone. "Get off the phone" used to mean "stop talking to your friend on the phone." Here's an article from 1999[1]: > Although you may think your parents are unreasonable when they tell…

There's a weird anti-induced demand.

Now that I can talk to anyone for free at any moment, I have no desire to

What would I even talk about? We have little in common

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#319

Post by garciasn »

Aurornis wrote: post #250
stdvit wrote: post #97

> Even in a world brimming with easy distractions—TikTok, Pornhub, Candy Crush, Sudoku—people still manage to meet for drinks, work out at the gym, go on dates, muddle through real life. They actually don't. Everything from dating and fitness to manufacturing and politics is in decline in activities, and more so in effect and understanding. You can't convince (enough) people anymore that it is even important as many…

I go out and do different activities that involve socialization. There are more people than ever going to the climbing gyms, meeting at the hiking trailhead, hanging out in the ski lift lines, and so on. All of the social places I’ve been going and activities I’ve been doing since a teenager are more crowded than ever, at a rate far faster than the local population growth. Many of the people doing these activities di…

Depends on where you live. Areas that have a culture of outdoor activity and strangers talking to one another is a requirement. Here in MN, for example, outdoor activity does exist year round but strangers talking to one another is not.

Re: We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness

#320

Post by trinsic2 »

mantas wrote: post #169
IgorPartola wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d like to offer an alternative explanation than AI to this. Shit is just too damn expensive. If you want to go hang out with friends it will cost you $4-8 for a cup of coffee. A dinner starts at $50/person. A trip to an amusement park is over $100 easily. The median individual income in the US currently is just over $65k/year or about $32.50/hour. That means half the workforce makes less than that. When an 8oz cock…

The problem is that people immediately think that socializing is consuming. It’s always an option to chat with people sitting on a park bench. Or at one’s home in a kitchen. Coffee can be home-made in both cases.

I kinda see both points. Yes there are things we can do without spending money and at the same time more and more of are social spaces are being commercialized along with the perception that anything that is worth anything to do costs money.
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