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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

#581

Post by abeppu »

Aurornis wrote: post #477
abeppu wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve been doing some of the same activities and going on some of the same hikes, bikes, runs, trails, and parks on and off for two decades. The popularity of these activities has exploded. Ok, interpreting "everything ... is in decline" literally by pointing to specific deviations from the broader trend is pointlessly correct. Lots of activities experience transient surges in popularity. But also regarding the popu…

You’re missing the biggest problem with the statistic you quoted: Discussing percentage changes in free time spent seems misleading without also explaining how overall free time has changed. Do people have more free time now? With the rise of remote and hybrid work it’s expected that less time on average would be spent commuting. A percentage change in free time use seems intentionally misleading.

Nope, this isn't just an issue of percentages.

I can't link to specific query results from the American Time Use Survey, but from this page [1], you can check "Avg hrs per day - Socializing and communicating", click "Retrieve Data", then adjust the time range using the dropdowns at the top, to be up to 2003 - 2024. In absolute terms (hours, not percent) there are declines both for the whole period, and from from 2003-2019 (i.e. before the pandemic).

And you can look at the series for "Avg hrs per day for participants - Working at home" and confirm that as expected it is relatively stable through 2019 and jumps in 2020, so the decrease in socializing through 2019 is not about WFH.

[1] https://data.bls.gov/toppicks?survey=tu

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

#582

Post by squigz »

cedws wrote: post #9
JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

I've been of the opinion that the web itself has already done this to a large degree. Web surfing (when is the last time you heard that phrase?) has never been a group activity.

There’s also doomscrolling. I genuinely think a large portion of Gen Z would rather stay in bed watching Instagram reels than go out to a bar or club. I’ve been wondering recently what impact banning social media would have on birth rates. I’m confident it would be positive but I’m not sure on what magnitude.

Between "going out to get drunk" and "browsing Instagram" I would rather have our kids doing the latter.

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

#583

Post by nathan_compton »

Esophagus4 wrote: post #117
nathan_compton wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess, but only if you assume elderly people are dumb enough to believe that a thing with no free will paying attention to them means something other than "no actual human wants to pay attention to me." I guess some elderly people have cognitive decline and might buy this, but I respect elderly people enough not to bet on it. Fundamentally, in my opinion, you cannot alleviate a human's need for the regard of other…

I don't think it's that the elderly are "dumb enough" to believe that their robot companion is human... it's that there may be some benefit of even that artificial simulation of companionship compared with having none at all. I'm sure they know they're not talking to a human, but maybe, even on a tiny subconscious level, if they get even a fraction of that companionship in a simulated way, it is presumably better tha…

What if the alternative was dispensing with this rotten system that dehumanizes everyone in it, especially the vulnerable, like the elderly?

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

#584

Post by dv_dt »

jama211 wrote: post #558
dv_dt wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So all the statistics are wrong?

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

#585

Post by [deleted] »

SoftTalker wrote: post #474
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for this comment, because it perfectly highlights the point I was trying to make. When I was a young person in the mid 90s, I (and most of my friends) made the equivalent or less of what you make now. But we also didn't have discord or Internet multiplayer games, so we were basically forced to go hang out in person and find other cheap stuff to do.

We also lived with roommates in small shitbox apartments. Very basic, old appliances. Cheap shag carpet. No other real amenities. We'd still have friends over to just hang out, drink some beer, play card games, listen to music, stuff like that. Didn't have to be anything fancy, in fact it almost never was. Just being together was the point.

[deleted]

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

#586

Post by justlikereddit »

kazinator wrote: post #557
rcarr wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[flagged]

The truth, there's numerous studies that support this yet because the holy cow status of mass immigration everyone who tells the truth is hounded

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

#587

Post by albumen »

creata wrote: post #497
AlecSchueler wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only suggest you ask your AI friends about the benefits of socialising and its importance to human development, they can explain it to you in a way that might not make you defensive. Yes, accepting things you have no control over is a sign of maturity. Hiding in your room talking to your phone won't make the scary people outside disappear, you're going to have to deal with them someday.

> you're going to have to deal with them someday. I know this is a very depressing thought, but you don't have to deal with them someday. Even if there's no other way out, there's always suicide.

Please don't recommend suicide. If you, OP or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

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

#588

Post by scotty79 »

creata wrote: post #497
AlecSchueler wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only suggest you ask your AI friends about the benefits of socialising and its importance to human development, they can explain it to you in a way that might not make you defensive. Yes, accepting things you have no control over is a sign of maturity. Hiding in your room talking to your phone won't make the scary people outside disappear, you're going to have to deal with them someday.

> you're going to have to deal with them someday. I know this is a very depressing thought, but you don't have to deal with them someday. Even if there's no other way out, there's always suicide.

Or you can just get rich and emotionally self-sufficient enough to never depend on anyone. Although it's probably good to have end of life plan for when your body completely fails you because of old age.

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

#589

Post by modo_mario »

danlugo92 wrote: post #533
rcarr wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Who would have thought that when you don't artificially limit housing supply people can actually afford it! Lots of examples in Latam as well.

Not keeping population increasing for as long as you can with migration helps too People will buffer their prices up often even trough stagnating purchasing power or dips due to construction when land isn't made anymore and the gov will make sure demand keeps growing lest it affect the lines.

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

#590

Post by fzeroracer »

SoftTalker wrote: post #256
newsclues wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The library has become a place for drugs addicts and homeless people who use the free computers to look at porn. It’s no longer a nice or safe place to go.

This is true where I live also. This feral subset of the homeless are ruining every nice public space that we used to have. Libraries, parks, trails. Patience and tolerance is wearing thin; everything that is tried to help them is just abused and shit on (often literally). More and more people are starting to say no, we don't want to tolerate this behavior here, if that's how you want to live then do it somewhere els…

If my fellow Americans hated the rich people that are responsible for all of these homeless individuals half as much as they do said homeless then American wouldn't be half as fucked as it is right now.

The homeless problem is all downstream of shit like the Sacklers pushing opioids and creating millions of addicts for profit. Yet they avoided jail and even can start up new businesses.

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