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Tamagotchi Connection

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Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#71

Post by Wojtkie »

ethbr1 wrote: post #53
nonrandomstring wrote: post #14

Tamagotchi are an ingenious psychological and social gambit, paving the way for smartphones. An electronic dependent, halfway between a doll and a game that hooks into the formative maternal and caring instincts of a child, almost 20 years before the modern smartphone (1996 -> 2016). Don't feed it? It dies. Fail to socialise it? It gets lonely for friends. B.J Fogg eat your heart out! Now we grew up into mums and dad…

> ... that [AI] will become something so deeply needy. Something in which we indulge all our affections instead of with real people. Business is way ahead of you in intentionally building this -- https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bqbp/can-you-be-in-relatio... Turns out, mimicking emotional connection is something LLMs are also good at. Also see here for the moral quandaries users are working through (e.g. do I tell m…

What I find disturbing about things like Replika is all your conversations are owned and stored by the company. At least with a real-life partner, there's not a database that someone can query to pull your intimate in-person discussions.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#72

Post by flir »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #14

Tamagotchi are an ingenious psychological and social gambit, paving the way for smartphones. An electronic dependent, halfway between a doll and a game that hooks into the formative maternal and caring instincts of a child, almost 20 years before the modern smartphone (1996 -> 2016). Don't feed it? It dies. Fail to socialise it? It gets lonely for friends. B.J Fogg eat your heart out! Now we grew up into mums and dad…

I saw a talk with a similar thesis once (don't remember who by, unfortunately, it was at least a decade ago). He was arguing that we're hard-wired for cuteness to appeal to us, and just as Bratz replace Barbie, cute tech will replace regular tech. If you want your tech to be successful, explore neoteny.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#73

Post by ethbr1 »

Wojtkie wrote: post #71
ethbr1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... that [AI] will become something so deeply needy. Something in which we indulge all our affections instead of with real people. Business is way ahead of you in intentionally building this -- https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bqbp/can-you-be-in-relatio... Turns out, mimicking emotional connection is something LLMs are also good at. Also see here for the moral quandaries users are working through (e.g. do I tell m…

What I find disturbing about things like Replika is all your conversations are owned and stored by the company. At least with a real-life partner, there's not a database that someone can query to pull your intimate in-person discussions.

The fact that it's cloud-hosted and company-controlled is the most disturbing part for me.

Can you imagine creating an emotional space for something {subject to Microsoft's TOS and updated unilaterally}?

In addition to the drifting line with intimacy... suddenly you have a privileged position with a huge userbase.

How long until people's agents start recommending {product of the week} in conversations?

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#74

Post by RetroTechie »

ethbr1 wrote: post #73
Wojtkie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find disturbing about things like Replika is all your conversations are owned and stored by the company. At least with a real-life partner, there's not a database that someone can query to pull your intimate in-person discussions.

The fact that it's cloud-hosted and company-controlled is the most disturbing part for me. Can you imagine creating an emotional space for something {subject to Microsoft's TOS and updated unilaterally}? In addition to the drifting line with intimacy... suddenly you have a privileged position with a huge userbase. How long until people's agents start recommending {product of the week} in conversations?

Current AI bots tend to be 1 trick dogs. And I have no desire to put emotional investment into a 'brain' that's wired directly to company HQ (especially commercial company). Tool: fine. Buddy: nope. For that I'll stick to the real thing.

That said: as the tech progresses, it wouldn't surprise me if the line between human-human friendships, and human-AI friendships blurs over time.

People are wired for connecting with other beings, but friendships come in many forms. Wouldn't rule out AI-based somethings filling some of those roles.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#75

Post by [deleted] »

Loughla wrote: post #56
walthamstow wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current 90s nostalgia wave is pretty interesting as a late 80s/early 90s millennial. The zoomers brought it back into the zeitgeist, and we are still young and hip enough to be interested in the trend, but we were actually there the first time round!

I wonder if this is what boomers/old gen x felt like when 70's hippy fashion/culture was the fad back in the late 90's/early 2000's.

[deleted]

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#76

Post by TeMPOraL »

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #49
qwertox wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the smartphone was "born" in 2007, it definitely took many years for them to be devices which are powerful enough to be really useful. The Nexus 4 was the first Android device which was generally usable, it came out in 2012. Everything before it was a heavy compromise. And while the iPhone was usable before that time, the price of it didn't really make it accessible.

This feels really revisionist, or perhaps you have some uncommon requirements for "generally usable". My first non-Blackberry smartphone was a Motorola Atrix in 2011. By this point most of my friends and coworkers were already carrying an iPhone or Android device, I was late to the party. None seemed to be saying their phones weren't generally usable.

> or perhaps you have some uncommon requirements for "generally usable"

Not GP, but my personal requirements for "generally usable" include the device being able to make calls and connect to Wi-Fi without freezing for two minutes. My first smart phone was a mid-range device bought around 2011, and enduring it for 2+ years successfully convinced me to never again buy any smartphone but the most recent flagship. I don't know how people can stand living with phones that are barely powerful enough to lift their own OS. This must be bad for one's mental health.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#77

Post by TeMPOraL »

Loughla wrote: post #56
walthamstow wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current 90s nostalgia wave is pretty interesting as a late 80s/early 90s millennial. The zoomers brought it back into the zeitgeist, and we are still young and hip enough to be interested in the trend, but we were actually there the first time round!

I wonder if this is what boomers/old gen x felt like when 70's hippy fashion/culture was the fad back in the late 90's/early 2000's.

Tinfoil hat theory: it's actually not an accident. Every kind of cultural thing appears twice, at a fixed offset of about 3 generations. First time around it's the original that captures the hearts of a given group and gets them to spend money. The second time around, it hits the purses of those same people, this time just banking on nostalgia.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#78

Post by walthamstow »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #77
Loughla wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is what boomers/old gen x felt like when 70's hippy fashion/culture was the fad back in the late 90's/early 2000's.

Tinfoil hat theory: it's actually not an accident. Every kind of cultural thing appears twice, at a fixed offset of about 3 generations. First time around it's the original that captures the hearts of a given group and gets them to spend money. The second time around, it hits the purses of those same people, this time just banking on nostalgia.

I don't think it's any more complex or sinister than the fact that rehashing old content or look/vibe/sound is cheaper and easier than coming up with entirely new ideas.

Just look at movies and music over the last 5-10 years, it's mostly remakes, reboots, covers, and extensions of existing 'universes'.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#79

Post by TeMPOraL »

walthamstow wrote: post #78
TeMPOraL wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tinfoil hat theory: it's actually not an accident. Every kind of cultural thing appears twice, at a fixed offset of about 3 generations. First time around it's the original that captures the hearts of a given group and gets them to spend money. The second time around, it hits the purses of those same people, this time just banking on nostalgia.

I don't think it's any more complex or sinister than the fact that rehashing old content or look/vibe/sound is cheaper and easier than coming up with entirely new ideas. Just look at movies and music over the last 5-10 years, it's mostly remakes, reboots, covers, and extensions of existing 'universes'.

Yes, I'm looking at the movies and shows over the last 5-10 years, and they aren't remaking and rebooting arbitrary older works - they're rebooting the specific stuff that the current most-spending generation grew up with.

I'm not saying it's sinister, but more that it's a plausible outcome of optimizing for profit.

Re: Tamagotchi Connection

#80

Post by bakugo »

atribecalledqst wrote: post #68
bakugo wrote: post #4

I still have a perfectly working v4, these things were built to last. Lots of kids at my school had one back then, but they were mostly the more basic chinese knockoffs. If you had a real one, you were one of the cool kids.

You can still buy Tamagotchi models from the 90s 'new in box', never been opened by human hands, and they almost always still work. The only issue is that the LR44 batteries can leak and corrode the motherboard. But depending on where the corrosion is, it can be cleaned up. I've personally bought a bunch of unopened 90s Tamagotchis and they've all worked.

Where did you buy them from?
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