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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

#551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people can afford grabbing a beer in a supermarket and going to the park. This is illegal in almost all of the USA. Sometimes you can get away with it, but if the cops decide to enforce the law on a particular day you’ll get a ticket.

unless you’re a kid or obnoxious police are quite reasonable made up fears are stealing your joy

These are not made up fears, this is illegal behavior and breaking the law means risking hefty fines and a criminal record. Drinking beer in a park is not worth the possible consequences

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

#552

The same criticism was leveled at social media, mostly Facebook. Then at mobile phones. Before that, it was aimed at television. In between, it was aimed at games. The big change is that we've solved boredom . More entertainment content is instantly available than anyone can consume. Humanity has solved "timepass". (That term is used mostly in India [1], but is generally applicable.) A sizable fraction of the populat…

Most Neets do get bored after their 40s in Japan. And right now content seems intent on recycling better content in the past. There's a kinesthetic appeal to natural movement and action that screens won't just replace yet. Although the loss of that is more than just in entertainment.

> Most Neets do get bored after their 40s in Japan.

Source?

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

#553
post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They go unenforced unless your party looks like a pack of belligerent teenagers. I drink in public all the time. Cops don’t like doing paperwork unless their hand is forced.

"Why take the risk?" You end up on video for drunkenness with police, and assuming they don't shoot you or beat the fuck out of you, the video still ends up on the internet. The next day at work, you quickly get called in to talk to your manager and HR, and now you have to find a new job. Time to find a new job! And in this market? Not worth the risk. Now companies are searching for New Hires on social media, and gue…

I was going to disagree with you as that hasn't been my experience, but I think you're actually on to something. The younger generation doesn't drink as much as they used to. I'm sure I would have thought twice about some of the things I did in college if every person present had the potential to film me and post it on the internet, ending my career before it even started. It's better prevention than DARE or prohibition could ever be- the risk of having one single mistake recorded and available for everyone to see for the rest of your life.

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

#554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a 44 yo Xenial, not too old, not young. That is, I'm part of the "walkman generation" . It surprises me how people are less and less open to socialize, to the point that some even see you with disgust if you DARE to interrupt them from.their mobile phone trance. Society nowadays is pretty ugly. Younger generations seem very isolationist to me.

I'm sure this is more a reflection on me but I try to go out to meet strangers at meetups and I find I quite often don't like the people. You might get the random ultra woke person who makes it impossible for others to have a conversation because they're just waiting to be triggered by anything anyone else says and find a way to spin every comment into an offence. If anyone brings up politics then the meetup is over,…

Perhaps it is more a reflection of you, or of US (?) attitudes.

This 3,000 person study [1] in Germany matched pairs of strangers for private face-to-face meetings to discuss divisive political issues. It found asymmetric effects: conversations with like-minded individuals caused political views to become more extreme (ideological polarization); by contrast, conversations with contrary-minded individuals did not lead to a convergence of political views, but significantly reduced negative beliefs and attitudes toward ideological out-group members (affective polarization), while also improving perceived social cohesion more generally. These effects of contrary-minded conversations seem to be driven mostly by positive experiences of interpersonal contact.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004727272...

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

#555
post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much is paid to go out is different than the amount of time spent out though

Sorry I do not understand what that means. You're talking about opportunity cost? In what sense is "time spent" economic?

If the cost per hour to say, go to the movies has tripled, but attendance has gone down by half, then by cost, more movie entertainment is being consumed than ever before, but the number of people and number of hours participating in the activity has actually gone down

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

#556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve been wondering recently what impact banning social media would have on birth rates. I’m confident it would be positive The obsession with their birth rates is one of the creepy reasons why young people don't want to go out.

As someone in their mid 20s, I agree with you. I think we're mostly more worried about our material conditions, having a future and a roof over our heads and surviving in the long term. I'm not even going to think about potentially having kids before I feel that those concerns are somewhat addressed.

ditto. I have talked about it before with someone who shared the opinion that falling birth rates is the end of the world, but to single that out is creepy indeed. I do understand that it can be seen as a symptom of decay, but when I them people on why exactly birth rates are so important, it does seem like they implied a sort of existential thesis where procreation is supposedly the end goal.

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

#557
post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't match my experience. In fact one thing I noticed living in Japan is how much more willing people are to spend money to meet up. Lots of events costs 3000-7000 yen. Clubs and bar have a cover charge. People will organize parties where they rent a bar and tell their friends it's 4000 yen each (about $27 currently but was closer to $40) in the past. They'll even have house parties and tell everyone to pitch…

Out of all developed nations, Japan is probably the one least affected by housing pricing in the world seeing as though Japanese housing depreciates rather than appreciates over time. Rent prices in America are a staggering 177.4% more expensive than Japan[1]. Ever increasing house prices, caused by the underlying power imbalance between capital and labour, is the root of all evil in the Anglosphere. It will not stop…

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

#558
post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't match my experience. In fact one thing I noticed living in Japan is how much more willing people are to spend money to meet up. Lots of events costs 3000-7000 yen. Clubs and bar have a cover charge. People will organize parties where they rent a bar and tell their friends it's 4000 yen each (about $27 currently but was closer to $40) in the past. They'll even have house parties and tell everyone to pitch…

Japan averages shorter working hours than the US though - so they literally have more time to go out.

This is NOT true in practice, unpaid overtime is insane and people’s actual work hours are way longer in Japan

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

#559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You might be surprised to learn that many people in public parks are not, in fact, drinking water out of their water bottles or La Croix out of their La Croix cans. Also, drinking in public is not allowed in much of Europe. Don’t go there and assume it is. There are also many US locations and parks where alcohol is allowed.

> Also, drinking in public is not allowed in much of Europe. Don’t go there and assume it is.

I live and have traveled a lot around Europe, and have never ran into that rule, but have almost always seen people drinking alcohol in public parks. From what I could find online it's only Norway, Ireland, and perhaps Poland, plus a few places in cities in other countries (Vienna, Milan, Barcelona, Riga...) which is far from "much of Europe".

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

#560
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it's popularized to blame social media and phones, economics should not be overlooked. Pay for young generations is lagging and restaurants and bar prices are super high. Public spaces for informal gatherings has shrunk - eg fewer malls

This doesn't match my experience. In fact one thing I noticed living in Japan is how much more willing people are to spend money to meet up. Lots of events costs 3000-7000 yen. Clubs and bar have a cover charge. People will organize parties where they rent a bar and tell their friends it's 4000 yen each (about $27 currently but was closer to $40) in the past. They'll even have house parties and tell everyone to pitch…

Japan is an outlier though
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