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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

#911

Post by ryandrake »

weatherlite wrote: post #858
Nathanba wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great example of what I'm talking about in regards to humans vs AI. First you misunderstand my comment, barely even responding to it, then you paint me as defensive even though I've been very open and the absolute opposite of defensive. It's actually you who is being defensive now, starting on a clear attack and painting me into some kind of scared recluse corner, somebody who supposedly can't even understa…

> I've clearly mentioned full robots and this is all a forward looking conversation about future AI which will have bodies and can interact like humans. There is going to be real competition for humans soon and I think people are overestimating the value of humans a lot. When do you think soon is ? It could easily be 20-30 years imo till there are humanoid robots intelligent enough to carry a long term relationship,…

> Not to mention most people still want intimate relationship ...yeah that thing called sex, while I'm sure someone is working on it somewhere this is gonna take a while to automate.

I think "good enough" sex robots are closer than you think. There are already existing physical products approaching that territory, and if you ignore current taboos, there's likely a huge market to be staked out once these are more... lifelike, I guess?. Things like AI girlfriend substitutes (and AI boyfriend substitutes) are under active research and development with a market already willing to pay, so merging them with those existing and future physical/robotic products would be an obvious next step.

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

#912

Post by freejazz »

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…

They actually do. Might be less people than before, but plenty still do. I live in a moderately cool neighborhood in Brooklyn. It's crazy Thursday through Saturday. Bars, parties, everyone everywhere, parks full. Baseball, run crews, volleyball and slack-liners. There was a hacky-sack club. Outdoor farmers market, packed. Tiny little street-corner vintage flea, packed. Restaurants spilling out everywhere.

Maybe get outside if you really think that people "actually don't" or that there aren't "enough" of them. Society is right here, chugging along.

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

#913

Post by const_cast »

mathiaspoint wrote: post #896
renewiltord wrote: post #895

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in a philosophical sense, but if we lose a lot of the workforce to machine opiate we will struggle unless we also eliminate social welfare programs.

Social welfare was crushing the workforce to begin with. That has never been a good idea.

People without legs and arms on permanent disability weren't gonna be working anyway.

And anyone who is on "welfare" and can work a nice job, would do so, because being on welfare sucks major ass.

You think there's people sacrificing a fucking salary for 400 dollars worth of SNAP a month that they have to spend on raw, uncooked foods? Come on. Does that even begin to make sense?

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

#914

Post by const_cast »

nathan_compton wrote: post #46
xandrius wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Loneliness is not mere solitude. Loneliness is not being happy with being alone, solitude is the state of being alone. I couldn't find a word for specifically being happy about it. So, loneliness is intrinsically negative, otherwise one wouldn't feel that way.

Having some intrinsically negative experiences is good, arguably.

Arguably, that's why humans have to socialize - because socializing is hard and you often lose.

The reason ChatGPT as a friend works for people is because it never fights back and has zero mind of it's own. It's an ego-boosting machine, perfect for a narcissist on the fringes of society.

Having friends means doing work. It means compromising, it means doing stuff you don't want to do purely for other people's benefit. That's why it builds character - because it pushes you outside of your comfort zone.

ChatGPT is the opposite. It expands your comfort zone and entrenches you in it -by only feeding you comforting things while simultaneously deluding you into thinking you are pushing your boundaries. But, you're not, it's merely masquerading as socialization.

This makes it much more dangerous than, say, a TV. The TV is not trying to lie to you and convince you you're socializing. But ChatGPT does, and those that want to believe that very comforting lie, will.

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

#915

Post by ViewTrick1002 »

const_cast wrote: post #906
Aurornis wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have more bars than ever before. Existing bars have expanded a lot. Bars are crowded and some even have lines now.

This largely isn't true. If you talk to people who work in nightlife and have for a while, they will tell you that patronage is down significantly over the past couple decades. If you do actually go to a bar or club, you'll even notice nobody is dancing. People don't even dance anymore. But if you don't want to believe me, we do actually have statistics. Young people are drinking less than ever and having less sex th…

> patronage is down significantly over the past couple decades.

More bars and restaurants over all but each sees less traffic still means more people going out than before.

Take any European city. The old core of specialized shops and people working trades has been replaced with social venues.

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

#916

Post by dougb5 »

_heimdall wrote: post #861

I don't understand claims like "AI will solve ___" Loneliness can't be solved, it can be reduced but you'll never make it such that people just can't be lonely. Think about it, if you can live in a busy city surrounded by potential friends and still be lonely, why will it be different with AIs? The same goes for cancer, energy, etc. Those are problems we can find ways to mitigate or make less scarce but we can't "sol…

Agreed. Techno-solutionists now use the verb "solve" in every imaginable context -- often where there's not a coherent question, let alone a workable answer ("AI will solve physics!"). It's comfortable to see everything as a system of equations.

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

#917

Post by ryandrake »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #487
techpineapple wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Progress is famously not a straight line.

Of course not. And neither is machine learning data. I'm talking about the trendline. If you deploy that machine learning knowledge and draw a best fit line. That line has a slope that is upward.

There were only 66 years between the Wright brothers' first successful powered flight in 1903 and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. The slope of the following 66 years of aviation/flight history has been distinctly less steep.

If you were in 1969 and extrapolated the trendline, we would have colonized the inner solar system by now.

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

#918

Post by akomtu »

motbus3 wrote: post #837

I have a friend who is treating depression for feeling lonely all the time. We used to call him every week to have a coffee, a beer, a pizza or whatever and he never did because he had no time and he was always busy or tired (as we also were). He kept doom scrolling until the day was over

Imo, depression is a negative emotion that runs in background and wastes 99% of your CPU cycles.

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

#919

Post by mulmen »

saltwatercowboy wrote: post #845
zwnow wrote: post #834

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont use AI for social interaction, I'd feel like a loser if I did that. But I also have a lot of trust issues with regular humans as I got disappointed over and over again. Didn't try to connect with people for over 10 years now.

Well, you seem nice enough to me.

Is this sarcasm?

Do you actually know the person you are replying to or are you just saying what you think they want or need to hear? How does this differentiate you from an LLM from the perspective of a reader?

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