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Deprecated Grandparents of America
- immy 6y agoI’m so confused. If this is art, I adore it.
- noobermin 6y agoI remember reading about people feeding old text messages with passed on friends into NNs and found the idea unsettling. I actually thought this was something like that but you're right, it's probably art actually. If so, kudos, this is great.
- crocsarecool 6y agoI’m confused too. It reminds me of the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back.” A woman’s husband passed away, and she uses a service that aggregates his social media to make a profile of him, so she can talk to him again in a convincing way.
- gh-throw 6y agoMuch of Black Mirror is about stuff that's obviously about to happen, a very slightly more advanced or tweaked version of something already happening, or allegory that isn't actually about the future, even if it's set there, but is entirely about right now (the most notable of the last category is probably Fifteen Million Merits).
- tekromancr 6y agoWatching Fifteen Million Merits while very very high on a pot brownie was I think the single event that started me on my path away from techno-optimism. Such an incredibly strong, poignant piece of art; and so shocking after the goofy PM pigfucker episode
- Seirdy 6y agoSemi-coherent thoughts follow. The most horrifying thing to me from that episode was that the judges and audience understood and agreed with the MC's denouncement of optimizing for user engagement (something that never happens today /s). It made them feel horrified, ashamed, and aware. Feelings they weren't used to feeling. Feelings they needed to feel. And they loved it. So they packaged it up and let people cash in their merits to hear him speak again. Like what the hell? Even awareness of the system can be sold as a commodity by the system. It makes me think of subreddits critical of proprietary software and social media, or privacy-focused Telegram users. It makes me think of TV shows I love that happen to be owned by media conglomerates: shows like Mr. Robot. Selling criticism of yourself...that's a powerful way to control dissent. The worst part is that the people profiting from this probably don't even realize what a genius move they're making. Most of this is likely unintentional. The most powerful actors don't even know how manipulative they're being; everything runs on autopilot at an organizational and individual level. That's what happens when you optimize for a singular metric.
- yellowapple 6y ago> The worst part is that the people profiting from this probably don't even realize what a genius move they're making. I mean, you call it "worst", but I'd call it a blessing, and one we ought to enjoy while it lasts. The moment the powers that be realize that they can capitalize on self-criticism and entirely preempt dissent is the moment escaping said powers will be effectively impossible. We're entering an age of ubiquitous corporate social engineering, particularly when those same corporate interests own the very means of discussing those corporate interests. A singularity is approaching, one of a different sort of artificial intelligence than what most people imagine: corporations are artificially intelligent actors - paperclip-maximizing automatons, but s/aperclip/rofit/ - and it's only a matter of time before they become fully self-aware and figure out how to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the universe in which they exist. The humans ostensibly "running" these corporations are a means to an end, and nothing more. And here we are, talking about it on a website owned by a corporation, via devices controlled by corporations, over networks controlled by corporations.
- mkr-hn 6y agoBlack Mirror is more polarizing than I expected. I watched San Junipero with someone. I thought it was adorable. He thought it was horrifying. The rest of the few episodes I watched made me feel the way he did, though. People bring different lenses to media and culture generally. I think that might be the point of the show.
- Sebguer 6y agoRelevant song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Fs5uuAlnk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Fs5uuAlnk
- gh-throw 6y agoThe sequence at the end is definitely... melancholy, at best, and depressing at worst. At least I think it’s fair to say that’s what they were going for, choosing to put that there. It’s up to the viewer whether that comes through as intended.
- anonymfus 6y agoI think that one of the best way to understand some strange corners of the transhumanist culture is through the satire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg29TuWo0Yo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg29TuWo0Yo
- tekromancr 6y agoJust want to give a recommendation for this, and pretty much EVERYTHING Alan Reznick has worked on.
- jrochkind1 6y agoI think the term is "science fiction".
- fouc 6y agoNice short story
- batch12 6y agoSoon with something like gpt-6 and deepfakes, something like this will be possible. Avatar immortality, not you but something like you. Question is, when it becomes hard to tell the difference, what's the difference?
- h0p3 6y agoI prepare for that day: https://philosopher.life/#2020.06.13%20-%20OpenAI%E2%84%A2%3A%20Redteam%20Turing%20Test:%5B%5B2020.06.13%20-%20OpenAI%E2%84%A2%3A%20Redteam%20Turing%20Test%5D%5D%20Aispondence https://philosopher.life/#2020.06.13%20-%20OpenAI%E2%84%A2%3...
- devenblake 6y agoI demoed the Loop (ironically, by tagging along for a DGA volunteer meeting) a while ago and couldn't get into it. Everything's just about right but then a Grandparent mentions the new NBA game when they were never previously into basketball (at least according to their profile) or says they're voting for X political candidate when they were a fervent supporter of the opposing party. It feels like advertising. FWIW a cousin who's more paranoid about AI than I am talks to a deceased relative through the Loop and says it's great.
- noobermin 6y agoContinuing the bit on Hacker News?
- Seirdy 6y agoI actually trialed their "stand-in" service before it got discontinued. Having an AI to do difficult conversations on my behalf is really helpful. It's a shame that what could've been a silver bullet for remotely-employed introverts got abused by spammers. I wouldn't mind if it kept running ad-supported, commenting on websites like HN after I die, as long as it doesn't diverge from my actual preferences. Preferences like Honey-Os, the best cereal out there. Start your day with Honey-Os, now available at Costco!
- h2odragon 6y agosee also: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo https://qntm.org/mmacevedo
- jumelles 6y agoWow, this is horrifying and fascinating.
- causality0 6y agoI enjoyed that but the technical bits were kind of cringey. The idea we're only ten years away from being able to scan every synapse in a living brain is like saying we're ten years away from terraforming Mars.
- Aeolun 6y agoWe’re ten years away from terraforming mars. We’re just not 10 years away from finishing the process.
- causality0 6y agoI remind you that we can't even build a telescope for less than twenty times the initial price tag and four times the initial development time. The closest we're going to come to starting Mars terraforming in the next decade is if there was a can of beer in the Tesla Roadster SpaceX launched into heliocentric orbit and it somehow intersects Mars.
- mortenjorck 6y ago“Real motive problem, with an AI. Not human, see?” “Well, yeah, obviously.” “Nope. I mean, it’s not human. And you can’t get a handle on it. Me, I’m not human either, but I respond like one. See?” “Wait a sec,” Case said. “Are you sentient, or not?” “Well, it feels like I am, kid, but I’m really just a bunch of ROM. It’s one of them, ah, philosophical questions, I guess...” The ugly laughter sensation rattled down Case’s spine. “But I ain’t likely to write you no poem, if you follow me. Your AI, it just might. But it ain’t no way human.”
- Seirdy 6y agoNeuromancer, by William Gibson, is to cyberpunk what Superman was to the superhero comic genre. The entire trilogy is gold.
- greesil 6y agoIf you lose someone it hurts. But wouldn't trying to create a simulacrum of your loss just prolong the hurt?
- galangalalgol 6y agoIt's just the extension of listening to a voicemail or video clip over and over. Except this videoclip might be self aware. As long as it's happy and given full autonomy I dont see it as a problem.
- CameronNemo 6y agoThose are not healthy behaviors.
- frosted-flakes 6y agoThey're not unhealthy either. They just are. People go through grief in their own ways and in their own time.
- batch12 6y agoWhat if they make it before they go?
- Aeolun 6y agoIf it’s literally a sentient being in the cloud, I’m not sure.
- flycaliguy 6y agoIf you enjoy this you are going to want to watch Westworld.
- gpspake 6y agoWestWorld, particularly S01, is the best take on AI I've ever seen and I consider it must watch TV of this golden era. The concept naturally made for great classic scifi material but the storytelling and execution was absolutely brilliant.
- germinalphrase 6y agoLost the thread for me during season two. Writing left too much unsaid.
- FpUser 6y agoHow long before they start sneaking not so obvious ads if they do not do it already?
- drewzero1 6y agoIt's left me a bit shaken how believable this is. When I saw this pop up and read it with no comments, it didn't surprise me that someone would try to keep a grandparent alive in simulation, or at least believe they could.
- DougN7 6y agoI couldn’t figure out if this was satire or not. With AI and Turing tests, etc I figured maybe this could be done. I’m not sure it would be healthy, but what do I know?
- drewzero1 6y agoYeah, it really didn’t sound healthy to me, but I strongly believe that even the most complete and convincing simulation of a person is not the same person, no matter how strongly the simulation believes it is. It feels weird even having to say that, but I’ve heard other people express contrary beliefs (e.g. on discussions about brain pattern scanning/simulation after death). If we want to talk about whether a sufficiently advanced simulation of a person might deserve to be considered a person, well, that’s another debate entirely. But the simulation is certainly not the same person (an idea explored further in another post on the linked site, “How do you solve a problem like a Space Fred [1]”). [1] https://newsletter.eternityhacks.com/issues/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-a-space-fred-499653 https://newsletter.eternityhacks.com/issues/how-do-you-solve...