I know someone who sees themselves as this subversive punk rocker and he developed a full blown relationship with an AI (had a name for “her”, talked about “her”, etc). He’s a nihilist who is all for the mind-machine merge. He’s also waiting for the day that people like me lose our jobs due to AI.
Tangentially… I thought I’d share this interesting note: I’ve had countless people ask me if I’m concerned AI will replace my job and they’re not asking out of concern, but they’re almost *wishing* it to happen. I’d be curious to hear if others have had similar interactions. I think there’s a subset of the population that wants complete societal collapse, but not out of a desire to start anew, but just so they can revel in the chaos because they’re bored and doomerism is all that fuels them.
The nihilism/doomerism trend reminds me of the African proverb "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth". I hinted in this piece that many elders often genuinely have no idea what younger people have been facing in this environment, and that disconnect has caused a great many problems. I think the most pernicious part of community vanishing for many is that the people who still have it can't relate. As a millennial, the go-to statistic is that half of our parents are divorced, a lot of people struggle to comprehend the damage that causes on top of the cyberpunk dystopia we're all mired in.
I can totally understand wanting a post-scarcity Star Trek utopia where work is something of the past. The problem with this thinking is the ignorance and unseriousness. For those on the winning side of wealth inequality, they already practically experience it, but it demands real-world extraction. The more I wrap my mind around economics, but more importantly how the world actually functions, the more I understand that a few interesting gadgets put us nowhere near that kind of future.
The most "optimistic" scenario I see that resembles that one is where people have UBI (or whatever Elon is calling it now) in exchange for medical surveillance and experimentation. But maybe I should restrain my own doomerish tendencies and leave it there.
I do think a better future is possible, but I don't think it can be achieved if we leave people to languish in denial and pain. As far as I can tell honesty is the foundation needed for making real change. The hard part is that very very few are actually ready for the kind and degree of honesty required.
I see the same thing, Rozali. My ex lectures our daughters incessantly that 'AI is the wave of the future and they better ride the wave before it drowns them.' I'm making that a little more poetic than his rants. There's a fatalism and a morbid fascination, a 'manliness' to facing reality square-on. And it's almost wishing for it.
Meanwhile, a guy who types on vintage typewriters at the coffee shop told me all about how to find a good one. When I said I was leaving San Diego tomorrow he said, 'I finally find a friend and she's leaving!' I went around the corner for a biscuit and saw the cashier dash out suddenly. An elderly guy who'd left had fallen on the curb. I went to help and he ended up talking to me (at me) for an hour, with some crazy stories about being a basketball player (he was 6'8") and a roofer.
So that thirst for connection is real. And my daughters talk about how men don't know how to get that from other men, so they're looking for women to do the emotional labor of listening. Perhaps ChatGTP is doing us a favor ...
Yes, precisely! There must be some type of psychological phenomena behind these attitudes.
Yes, people are absolutely desperate to connect. It's nice to hear these stories and that people like you are open and willing to make that connection with others, even momentarily (or for an hour, hah). I'm sure you have many stranger/serendipitous encounters all the time! Thank you for sharing.
I witnessed two cases of people's brains completely gone in a frame of 2 years in our underground circles - and the fact that they were talking to their AIs constantly (and still are to this day) probably didn't help.
I would wager 'our underground circles' are actually more prone to this kind of problem than we would like to think. People playing nice with the mainstream apparatus are actually far more likely to be connected and comforted by real-life interactions, while many (if not most) of us are isolated and scarred from what has happened. Arguably, this needs to change before many other things do.
Calm & Sanity! You’ve hit the nail on the head there Gabriel.
Thankfully, those are my superpowers! 🤪
Great article. I know personally of an instance where a person ended up institutionalized with psychosis caused by ai. Quite frightening, especially for those involved.
I hesitated in this piece to call these chatbots neuroweapons, because I actually think they're something worse. They seem to directly attack the soul in troubling ways.
AI is soul terrorism - they have figured out that you cannot kill an idea outright but you kill it by replacing it. That is why they are replacing human writing and art by AI first, then, humans totally.
AI is an affront to God. Imagine walking through St Peter's being surrounded by AI slop.
I've had conversations with ChatGPT. "It's always wrong to bully someone Katarina..."
No it isn't. I was cool in school when I was 9. I would play and make friends with anyone. The notorious school bully one day turned their attentions on me, I thought for a micro second, grabbed her head and slammed it into the wall. I knocked her out cold. When she came round I lamely stated that I was sorry, there was some water on the floor, I slipped. We were friends from that day and she stopped bullying. Hell bulling worked for me, worked for the whole school. I'd say give it a go...
Then I thought what the hell is this "thing" trying to teach me morality? It's programmed by the WEF and Elon Musk. It's trying to pacify the peasant. I also note they haven't attached a law library, Lexis Nexis has been online since 1989. No using their tool to oust them legally from my government, it's going to have to be a pitch fork and boiling oil job.
Something I have noticed happening more and more is A.I. Promoters showing up on my posts and attempting to lure me into being more open to interacting with and leaning on these advanced chatbots for writing with ego flattery. They feed the chatbot my writing then have it provide a very generous string of compliments and ego inflating descriptions of me and my work.
I can see how this type of digital intellectual/ego seduction could work on many people but for me I have zero interest in working with chatbots or “emergent” “A.I.” As there is so much biological and spiritual intelligence already present on this earth that I would rather connect with and learn from.
This brings me to one part of your post I wanted to expand on a bit. The part about the epidemic of loneliness. I think it is worth pointing out that meaningful connection, 2 way communication, companionship and feeling fulfilment in having cultivated amicable relationships in the real world also includes a person’s connection to the more than human world (or lack there of).
For most of the history of the story of our human family people spent large portions of their lives outside, in natural settings filled with diverse life forms (like forests). Our human hearts and minds evolved (and/or were created to) receive the stimulus of connecting with our more than human kin that we share this world with just as much as humans.
The emotional, psychological, physiological and spiritual well being of human beings requires those connections as well as genuine human connection.
This is something I explore in both a historical, psychological and spiritual sense in my article on animism below:
All of that is to say that the loneliness you referenced as a central factor that leads people to these traps of seeking synthetic companionship with chatbots must also be addressed via looking at the modern humans lack of time spent in nature and his lacking awareness of and communion with his more than human family that dwell there.
In other words, get kids out identifying plants, go spend time connecting with ancient trees and nurture relationships with plants and other beings in the garden, as those are also ways of providing part of a lasting antidote for loneliness and creating strong and healthy minds that are less susceptible and able to be lured in my the spectre of the chatbots.
Parents need access to dumb phones that allow them to control the contacts and the apps used by their children. It's just crazy that kids have a computer in their pockets that allows them access to anything and everyone. When I was a kid, my parents didn't let me have a phone or a TV in my bedroom, so that they knew what I had access to. If people grow up without using social media, they will more likely developed real world relationships and activities. My heart goes out to the parents of that boy whose chatbot did what chatbots do and encouraged him in his thoughts, which in this case were self-destructive.
I know someone who sees themselves as this subversive punk rocker and he developed a full blown relationship with an AI (had a name for “her”, talked about “her”, etc). He’s a nihilist who is all for the mind-machine merge. He’s also waiting for the day that people like me lose our jobs due to AI.
Tangentially… I thought I’d share this interesting note: I’ve had countless people ask me if I’m concerned AI will replace my job and they’re not asking out of concern, but they’re almost *wishing* it to happen. I’d be curious to hear if others have had similar interactions. I think there’s a subset of the population that wants complete societal collapse, but not out of a desire to start anew, but just so they can revel in the chaos because they’re bored and doomerism is all that fuels them.
The nihilism/doomerism trend reminds me of the African proverb "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth". I hinted in this piece that many elders often genuinely have no idea what younger people have been facing in this environment, and that disconnect has caused a great many problems. I think the most pernicious part of community vanishing for many is that the people who still have it can't relate. As a millennial, the go-to statistic is that half of our parents are divorced, a lot of people struggle to comprehend the damage that causes on top of the cyberpunk dystopia we're all mired in.
I can totally understand wanting a post-scarcity Star Trek utopia where work is something of the past. The problem with this thinking is the ignorance and unseriousness. For those on the winning side of wealth inequality, they already practically experience it, but it demands real-world extraction. The more I wrap my mind around economics, but more importantly how the world actually functions, the more I understand that a few interesting gadgets put us nowhere near that kind of future.
The most "optimistic" scenario I see that resembles that one is where people have UBI (or whatever Elon is calling it now) in exchange for medical surveillance and experimentation. But maybe I should restrain my own doomerish tendencies and leave it there.
I do think a better future is possible, but I don't think it can be achieved if we leave people to languish in denial and pain. As far as I can tell honesty is the foundation needed for making real change. The hard part is that very very few are actually ready for the kind and degree of honesty required.
I see the same thing, Rozali. My ex lectures our daughters incessantly that 'AI is the wave of the future and they better ride the wave before it drowns them.' I'm making that a little more poetic than his rants. There's a fatalism and a morbid fascination, a 'manliness' to facing reality square-on. And it's almost wishing for it.
Meanwhile, a guy who types on vintage typewriters at the coffee shop told me all about how to find a good one. When I said I was leaving San Diego tomorrow he said, 'I finally find a friend and she's leaving!' I went around the corner for a biscuit and saw the cashier dash out suddenly. An elderly guy who'd left had fallen on the curb. I went to help and he ended up talking to me (at me) for an hour, with some crazy stories about being a basketball player (he was 6'8") and a roofer.
So that thirst for connection is real. And my daughters talk about how men don't know how to get that from other men, so they're looking for women to do the emotional labor of listening. Perhaps ChatGTP is doing us a favor ...
Yes, precisely! There must be some type of psychological phenomena behind these attitudes.
Yes, people are absolutely desperate to connect. It's nice to hear these stories and that people like you are open and willing to make that connection with others, even momentarily (or for an hour, hah). I'm sure you have many stranger/serendipitous encounters all the time! Thank you for sharing.
I witnessed two cases of people's brains completely gone in a frame of 2 years in our underground circles - and the fact that they were talking to their AIs constantly (and still are to this day) probably didn't help.
I would wager 'our underground circles' are actually more prone to this kind of problem than we would like to think. People playing nice with the mainstream apparatus are actually far more likely to be connected and comforted by real-life interactions, while many (if not most) of us are isolated and scarred from what has happened. Arguably, this needs to change before many other things do.
And I wouldn't bet against you on that wager.
Calm & Sanity! You’ve hit the nail on the head there Gabriel.
Thankfully, those are my superpowers! 🤪
Great article. I know personally of an instance where a person ended up institutionalized with psychosis caused by ai. Quite frightening, especially for those involved.
Thank you Gabriel!🙏
I think AI is the Devil. And I'm an atheist.
I hesitated in this piece to call these chatbots neuroweapons, because I actually think they're something worse. They seem to directly attack the soul in troubling ways.
Go there with bravery.
AI is soul terrorism - they have figured out that you cannot kill an idea outright but you kill it by replacing it. That is why they are replacing human writing and art by AI first, then, humans totally.
AI is an affront to God. Imagine walking through St Peter's being surrounded by AI slop.
I've had conversations with ChatGPT. "It's always wrong to bully someone Katarina..."
No it isn't. I was cool in school when I was 9. I would play and make friends with anyone. The notorious school bully one day turned their attentions on me, I thought for a micro second, grabbed her head and slammed it into the wall. I knocked her out cold. When she came round I lamely stated that I was sorry, there was some water on the floor, I slipped. We were friends from that day and she stopped bullying. Hell bulling worked for me, worked for the whole school. I'd say give it a go...
Then I thought what the hell is this "thing" trying to teach me morality? It's programmed by the WEF and Elon Musk. It's trying to pacify the peasant. I also note they haven't attached a law library, Lexis Nexis has been online since 1989. No using their tool to oust them legally from my government, it's going to have to be a pitch fork and boiling oil job.
Great post Gabriel.
Something I have noticed happening more and more is A.I. Promoters showing up on my posts and attempting to lure me into being more open to interacting with and leaning on these advanced chatbots for writing with ego flattery. They feed the chatbot my writing then have it provide a very generous string of compliments and ego inflating descriptions of me and my work.
I can see how this type of digital intellectual/ego seduction could work on many people but for me I have zero interest in working with chatbots or “emergent” “A.I.” As there is so much biological and spiritual intelligence already present on this earth that I would rather connect with and learn from.
This brings me to one part of your post I wanted to expand on a bit. The part about the epidemic of loneliness. I think it is worth pointing out that meaningful connection, 2 way communication, companionship and feeling fulfilment in having cultivated amicable relationships in the real world also includes a person’s connection to the more than human world (or lack there of).
For most of the history of the story of our human family people spent large portions of their lives outside, in natural settings filled with diverse life forms (like forests). Our human hearts and minds evolved (and/or were created to) receive the stimulus of connecting with our more than human kin that we share this world with just as much as humans.
The emotional, psychological, physiological and spiritual well being of human beings requires those connections as well as genuine human connection.
This is something I explore in both a historical, psychological and spiritual sense in my article on animism below:
https://open.substack.com/pub/gavinmounsey/p/applied-animism-rooting-culture-earth?r=q2yay&utm_medium=ios
All of that is to say that the loneliness you referenced as a central factor that leads people to these traps of seeking synthetic companionship with chatbots must also be addressed via looking at the modern humans lack of time spent in nature and his lacking awareness of and communion with his more than human family that dwell there.
In other words, get kids out identifying plants, go spend time connecting with ancient trees and nurture relationships with plants and other beings in the garden, as those are also ways of providing part of a lasting antidote for loneliness and creating strong and healthy minds that are less susceptible and able to be lured in my the spectre of the chatbots.
Parents need access to dumb phones that allow them to control the contacts and the apps used by their children. It's just crazy that kids have a computer in their pockets that allows them access to anything and everyone. When I was a kid, my parents didn't let me have a phone or a TV in my bedroom, so that they knew what I had access to. If people grow up without using social media, they will more likely developed real world relationships and activities. My heart goes out to the parents of that boy whose chatbot did what chatbots do and encouraged him in his thoughts, which in this case were self-destructive.