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Empathy and humanity aside, we live in interesting time. This is really a cyberpunk level headline where people saw their AI companion change and it had impacts

by belval 4y ago

Empathy and humanity aside, we live in interesting time. This is really a cyberpunk level headline where people saw their AI companion change and it had impacts on their relationship with it. Add an holographic projection and this is pretty much Joi from Bladerunner.

Apocryphon 4y ago
One thing to keep in mind with cyberpunk is that all of the gee-whiz technology was merely supplementary to the core material and spiritual conditions in which the tech added as a salve for the suffering or enabled the oppressors. We live in an atomized, detached culture in which economic pressures prevent family formation or livelihood security that past generations (or maybe just one, the postwar generation) enjoyed. So when companies monetize the loneliness people feel towards each other by selling them subscriptions to AI chatbots we might only see the cutting edge dystopian tech, but remember that without the underlying conditions, this wouldn't be so cyberpunk. Maybe in a healthier society these chatbots could be used for something less desperate.
- prox 4y ago
  We really lack coherent movements that move needles like we had in the 20th century. Say the suffragettes or the end child labour movement, or voting. These days it is very fragmented and often co-opted very quickly which is the opposite of what you want for a ‘better’ society.
  - eldritch_4ier 4y ago
    Think it’s even deeper than that. The US was 50% of the global economy in the post war years. Now we’re a fraction of that. The world is more competitive now. The amazing surplus and living standards of the post war years were an aberration
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    Governments and other forces got very very good at undermining and dissipating subversive movements. A lot of the changes in the US the last half century make a lot of sense if you view them as a reaction to the civil rights movement in the abstract. Eg not about any of its concrete goals or accomplishments, but just ensuring that no movement as widespread and transformative as that can form again, regardless of its mission.
    - kridsdale1 4y ago
      Compare to China’s investment in undermining. You can’t organize online or even move around in they city without The Party knowing about it and sending you to a disappearing camp. Yesterday on Reddit someone showed how now the toilet paper in public restrooms requires you to have your face scanned to dispense!
      - klibertp 4y ago
        I think you fail to account for cultural differences. The "face scanning for toilet paper" may be unacceptable to you, but if it means no more vandalized public toilets, then there are bound to exist societies which would deem it an OK trade-off. I may be misinformed, but my impression of Chinese culture is that it prefers stability and order, sometimes at the expense of liberty and convenience. That's not to legitimize the abuse of such means by the state, and I don't want to say that disappearing people from the street is fine, but lets focus on that abuse and camps, not the toilet paper. These are completely separate matters.
  - adrianN 4y ago
    There is probably strong survivorship bias in how we judge past "movements". I could for example imagine that today's "climate movement" will become a "movement" in future history books.

by belval 4y ago

Apocryphon 4y ago

One thing to keep in mind with cyberpunk is that all of the gee-whiz technology was merely supplementary to the core material and spiritual conditions in which the tech added as a salve for the suffering or enabled the oppressors. We live in an atomized, detached culture in which economic pressures prevent family formation or livelihood security that past generations (or maybe just one, the postwar generation) enjoyed. So when companies monetize the loneliness people feel towards each other by selling them subscriptions to AI chatbots we might only see the cutting edge dystopian tech, but remember that without the underlying conditions, this wouldn't be so cyberpunk. Maybe in a healthier society these chatbots could be used for something less desperate.

prox 4y ago
We really lack coherent movements that move needles like we had in the 20th century. Say the suffragettes or the end child labour movement, or voting. These days it is very fragmented and often co-opted very quickly which is the opposite of what you want for a ‘better’ society.
- eldritch_4ier 4y ago
  Think it’s even deeper than that. The US was 50% of the global economy in the post war years. Now we’re a fraction of that. The world is more competitive now. The amazing surplus and living standards of the post war years were an aberration
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  Governments and other forces got very very good at undermining and dissipating subversive movements. A lot of the changes in the US the last half century make a lot of sense if you view them as a reaction to the civil rights movement in the abstract. Eg not about any of its concrete goals or accomplishments, but just ensuring that no movement as widespread and transformative as that can form again, regardless of its mission.
  - kridsdale1 4y ago
    Compare to China’s investment in undermining. You can’t organize online or even move around in they city without The Party knowing about it and sending you to a disappearing camp. Yesterday on Reddit someone showed how now the toilet paper in public restrooms requires you to have your face scanned to dispense!
    - klibertp 4y ago
      I think you fail to account for cultural differences. The "face scanning for toilet paper" may be unacceptable to you, but if it means no more vandalized public toilets, then there are bound to exist societies which would deem it an OK trade-off. I may be misinformed, but my impression of Chinese culture is that it prefers stability and order, sometimes at the expense of liberty and convenience. That's not to legitimize the abuse of such means by the state, and I don't want to say that disappearing people from the street is fine, but lets focus on that abuse and camps, not the toilet paper. These are completely separate matters.
- adrianN 4y ago
  There is probably strong survivorship bias in how we judge past "movements". I could for example imagine that today's "climate movement" will become a "movement" in future history books.