3 ms·

What's the next thing you think?

CatWChainsaw 4y ago
I didn't really want to have the same conversation in two places but whatever, if you want to bookmark this comment and see how it pans out on a longer timescale, I can make a couple guesses. Easy potshot is all the generative AI. We get to write code and emails and homework and books faster. We also get more malware; and, when the realms of text, video, and voice are all convincing enough, we get that deepfake flood we're promised is coming, and so the breaking of a "shared reality" that snowballed with social media echo chambers becomes fully realized. So far the only "solution" I've seen is AI detection software. To me that sounds like a continuation of the same old cold war except it exhausts even more mental resources. If you want a more novel guess, anything of the brain-computer interface ilk. It gets accurate and portable enough and it will get put into as many hard surfaces as Big Tech can stuff it, from trackpads to phone screens to more "public" terminals like ticket counters or automated fast-food restaurant booths. It starts with the novelty of generating Stable Diffusion images with just your brain, or streamlining navigation menus with thought. And then, just like big data fueled AI and proved very economically lucrative, every single thought anyone ever has will be stored just because we have the capability. FAANGs and the NSA have many redundant data centers. Every thought you have can be monetized. Or used to convict you of thoughtcrime. I can't really see the fabric of society withstanding that kind of floodgate.
- nebula8804 4y ago
  Hmm, seems like you are on the mark with the generative AI. I've read others writing similar things. Some people propose that this will be the breaking point where people have had enough of internet content and a trend of disconnecting might start to become a thing or the return to more curated walled gardens (remember AOL?) As for your second point, seems like you are referring to neuralink? Are you also considering things like the upcoming Apple Glasses/Goggles? That seems like it will lead us to [1] (a video I totally despise because I dread it coming) [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs
  - CatWChainsaw 4y ago
    I'm referring to all BCIs although right now I wouldn't be surprised if Neuralink is the most visible example. But I'm using BCI as an umbrella term for any technology whose input is the brain's electrical signals and whose output purports to be your thoughts, regardless of whether or not that interface is surgically invasive. Given that all surgeries carry risk and that all implants have challenges regarding host compatibility, getting that kind of tech to the point where the graze of a finger on an innocuous surface is enough to ballpark "thoughts" (the back of your phone, a public terminal, the door handle to a store you're walking into in order to complain to the manager...) would be the wet dream of any company and government that hoards data like money.

I didn't really want to have the same conversation in two places but whatever, if you want to bookmark this comment and see how it pans out on a longer timescale, I can make a couple guesses. Easy potshot is all the generative AI. We get to write code and emails and homework and books faster. We also get more malware; and, when the realms of text, video, and voice are all convincing enough, we get that deepfake flood we're promised is coming, and so the breaking of a "shared reality" that snowballed with social media echo chambers becomes fully realized. So far the only "solution" I've seen is AI detection software. To me that sounds like a continuation of the same old cold war except it exhausts even more mental resources. If you want a more novel guess, anything of the brain-computer interface ilk. It gets accurate and portable enough and it will get put into as many hard surfaces as Big Tech can stuff it, from trackpads to phone screens to more "public" terminals like ticket counters or automated fast-food restaurant booths. It starts with the novelty of generating Stable Diffusion images with just your brain, or streamlining navigation menus with thought. And then, just like big data fueled AI and proved very economically lucrative, every single thought anyone ever has will be stored just because we have the capability. FAANGs and the NSA have many redundant data centers. Every thought you have can be monetized. Or used to convict you of thoughtcrime. I can't really see the fabric of society withstanding that kind of floodgate.

nebula8804 4y ago
Hmm, seems like you are on the mark with the generative AI. I've read others writing similar things. Some people propose that this will be the breaking point where people have had enough of internet content and a trend of disconnecting might start to become a thing or the return to more curated walled gardens (remember AOL?) As for your second point, seems like you are referring to neuralink? Are you also considering things like the upcoming Apple Glasses/Goggles? That seems like it will lead us to [1] (a video I totally despise because I dread it coming) [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs
- CatWChainsaw 4y ago
  I'm referring to all BCIs although right now I wouldn't be surprised if Neuralink is the most visible example. But I'm using BCI as an umbrella term for any technology whose input is the brain's electrical signals and whose output purports to be your thoughts, regardless of whether or not that interface is surgically invasive. Given that all surgeries carry risk and that all implants have challenges regarding host compatibility, getting that kind of tech to the point where the graze of a finger on an innocuous surface is enough to ballpark "thoughts" (the back of your phone, a public terminal, the door handle to a store you're walking into in order to complain to the manager...) would be the wet dream of any company and government that hoards data like money.