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A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

nytimes.com

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Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#51

Post by philipkglass »

floren wrote: post #45
sssilver wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would such verification work at planetary scale?

Who cares about planetary scale? Back when your networking reach was largely limited by the size of your area code, local BBSes had user verification and were incredibly popular.

Nextdoor is the only social network I have used that confirms your real-life location, and it's not any better than the planetary scale sites. BBSes were better due to how users self-selected into them. Small geographic clusters don't inherently promote quality.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#52

Post by tharne »

api wrote: post #35
Mabusto wrote: post #30

I think we'll start to see AI as any other tool that can atrophy your natural faculties. You can use a wheelchair to get everywhere, but your leg muscles will start to wither, but a wheeled vehicle for going longer distances is a genuinely useful tool. Reaching for AI as a _substitute_ for thinking is bad, but reaching for it as a tool to assist thinking is good; you just need to be honest about whether it's your bra…

Ancient Egyptians on writing: "For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them." https://www.anthologialitt.com/post/the-god-thoth-and-the-in... This discourse is as old as humanity. Every…

> This discourse is as old as humanity. Every tool makes us stronger but also paradoxically weaker.

Of course that statement is true for every tool, but what's missing from the discussion is whether the trade off is worth it. Even truly terrible things have benefits. Smoking cigarettes makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight, this is well documented. Smoking has also been shown to reduce anxiety in some people. The negative consequences that cigarettes introduce, however, are so horrific that no one in their right mind would recommend that someone take up smoking, even if there are some demonstrable benefits to it.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#53

Post by pjc50 »

Mabusto wrote: post #30

I think we'll start to see AI as any other tool that can atrophy your natural faculties. You can use a wheelchair to get everywhere, but your leg muscles will start to wither, but a wheeled vehicle for going longer distances is a genuinely useful tool. Reaching for AI as a _substitute_ for thinking is bad, but reaching for it as a tool to assist thinking is good; you just need to be honest about whether it's your bra…

I don't think the "tool weakening" discourse is strong enough: it overlooks the aversarial nature of the modern internet. There are humans actively intending to weaken you for various reasons, either to sell you stuff or to weaken you ideologically by making you hate other humans such as in this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45848215

See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45845772 "meta predicted 10% of revenue came from scams"

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#54

Post by ASalazarMX »

dingnuts wrote: post #22
Espressosaurus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old reddit is unfortunately just a rounding error. I weep for the day they decide to kill it.

weep? I'd finally be free. I wish this site would disappear too. Whoever designed these algorithms got me good, at a young age, and I don't think these sites have been a net positive overall or on me personally

We are already free. If we keep returning to a few subreddits, it's because we can't find an equivalent community elsewhere. If they kill the old interface, we'll eventually use the new one if there are no other alternatives, no need to lie to ourselves.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#55

Post by entropie »

> “I’m pretty frightened, to be frank,” Dr. Melumad said. “I’m worried about younger folks not knowing how to conduct a traditional Google search.”

Well, this guy obviously didn't get the memo that Google search isn't what it was 10 years ago and is total junk.

It's not just AI brain rot. Brain rot is everywhere. Social media, linear TV, politics.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#56

Post by amarcheschi »

sssilver wrote: post #29
HeinzStuckeIt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On modern social media, even if you had a group full of smart and reasonable people, the platform itself is injecting crap that may well drive out many of them. I rececently returned to Reddit since there are no other remaining discussion venues for one of my hobbies. I looked at the new-Reddit interface and shuddered: ads are being shown among comments, and many comments are hidden by defaul because apparently discu…

My favorite Reddit UX scam is that you tap on comments to collapse them along with their children, UNLESS they’re an ad that masks itself exactly like a comment in which case you tap it with the intent of collapsing it, but instead you inadvertently increase RDDT shareholder value (at the expense of the time you waste closing the webview)!

I think it's possible to remove ads with reddit revanced

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#57

Post by tharne »

maxdo wrote: post #44

I’m doing most complicated projects I ever work , I would not even try to implement them without AI. My brain is exploding of complexity every time , I passively learn lots of topics I only had a vague understanding in the past

> I’m doing most complicated projects I ever work , I would not even try to implement them without AI. My brain is exploding of complexity every time , I passively learn lots of topics I only had a vague understanding in the past

This sentence is very poorly written and ironically is undermining the very case you're trying to make.

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#58

Post by veryemartguy »

dingnuts wrote: post #25
HeinzStuckeIt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a HN post to talk about something unrelated you wanted to talk about anyway, has been part of HN for years. Probably because a lot of people feel with the rise of 140-character type social media, there are fewer and fewer venues on the internet where you can substantially talk to educated and non-brand-hustling people about the things that you think about.

this website exists as an advertisement for a brand. the people here are hustling harder than anywhere! it's worse than LinkedIn! that's why this website is a constant dick measuring contest -- it's a news site run by a venture capitalist firm about startups! Why would you think this place is not absolutely full of shills? the Internet is so dead, I'm sure I'm arguing with a bot. I need to go outside..

[dead]

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#59

Post by sdwr »

tharne wrote: post #57
maxdo wrote: post #44

I’m doing most complicated projects I ever work , I would not even try to implement them without AI. My brain is exploding of complexity every time , I passively learn lots of topics I only had a vague understanding in the past

> I’m doing most complicated projects I ever work , I would not even try to implement them without AI. My brain is exploding of complexity every time , I passively learn lots of topics I only had a vague understanding in the past This sentence is very poorly written and ironically is undermining the very case you're trying to make.

It's pretty clearly not a native English speaker

Re: A.I. and Social Media Contribute to 'Brain Rot'

#60

Post by SunshineTheCat »

entropie wrote: post #55

> “I’m pretty frightened, to be frank,” Dr. Melumad said. “I’m worried about younger folks not knowing how to conduct a traditional Google search.” Well, this guy obviously didn't get the memo that Google search isn't what it was 10 years ago and is total junk. It's not just AI brain rot. Brain rot is everywhere. Social media, linear TV, politics.

“I’m worried about younger folks not knowing how to conduct a traditional Google search.”

This has a real “I’m afraid no one will know how to ride a horse when the motorcoach comes out” sense to it.

The answer is, who cares? Why would a better way of doing something “frighten” someone. Not to say it won't come with its own set of issues, but technology constantly evolving/improving should be expected by now, but humanity remains terrified at even the slightest upheaval of the status quo.

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