4 ms·

All connection technology is a force for homogeneity. Television was the death of the regional accent, for example. Through unlimited amusement, entertainment,

by tines 1y ago

All connection technology is a force for homogeneity. Television was the death of the regional accent, for example. Through unlimited amusement, entertainment, and connection we are creating a sad, boring, lonely world.

stego-tech 1y ago
The problem in the case of AI is who is curating that homogeneity, and to what end. Dynamic systems like IRC and messengers let folks connect and gravitate more “naturally”, while AI - being a walled garden curated by for-profit entities funded by billionaire Capitalists - naturally have a vested interest in forcing a sort of homogeneity that benefits their bottom line and minimizes risk to their business model. That’s the real threat: reality authoring.
- nullc 1y ago
  Not sure about that. Billionare Capitalists live in this world too. They might cause harm, sure, but that harm generally takes predictable form and is of finite magnitude. AI behavior on the other hand can cause under-informed users to do crazy things that no one would ever want. The form of the harm is less predictable, the magnitude isn't limited by anything except the user's ability and skepticism. Imagine whatever US president you think is least competent talking to ChatGPT. If their conversation ventures into discussion of a Big Red Switch That Ends The World, it's going to eventually advise on all the reasons the button should be pushed, because that's exactly what would happen in the mountains of narrative material the LLM has been trained on. Hopefully there is no end the world button and even the worst US president isn't going to push it because ChatGPT said it was a good idea. ... But you get the idea, and there absolutely are people leaving their families and doing all manner of crazy stuff because they accidentally prompted the AI into writing fiction starting them and the AI is advising them to live the life of a fictional character. I think AI doomers have it all wrong, AI risk to the extent it exists isn't from any kind of super-intelligence, it's significantly from super-insanity. The AI doesn't need any kind of super-human persuasion, turns out vastly _sub_-human persuasion is more than enough for many. Wealthy people abusing a new communications channel to influence the public isn't a new risk, it's a risk as old as time. It's not irrelevant, by any means, but we do have a long history of dealing with it.
  - tines 1y ago
    > I think AI doomers have it all wrong, AI risk to the extent it exists isn't from any kind of super-intelligence, it's significantly from super-insanity. The AI doesn't need any kind of super-human persuasion, turns out vastly _sub_-human persuasion is more than enough for many. Totally agree. We have a level of technology today that is enough to ruin the world. We don’t need to look any further for the threat to our souls.
  - Dracophoenix 1y ago
    > AI behavior on the other hand can cause under-informed users to do crazy things that no one would ever want. The form of the harm is less predictable, the magnitude isn't limited by anything except the user's ability and skepticism. One could say the same of the printing press.
    - tines 1y ago
      Not at all. Quantity has a quality all its own.
  - k310 1y ago
    I never proposed to either a chatbot or a billionaire [0] Who says that the president isn't already a chatbot, himself? [1] Think about this article. Enjoy. [0] https://people.com/man-proposed-to-his-ai-chatbot-girlfriend-11757334 https://people.com/man-proposed-to-his-ai-chatbot-girlfriend... [1] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgpt-presidency/ https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgp...
  - guappa 1y ago
    > Not sure about that. Billionare Capitalists live in this world too. They might cause harm, sure, but that harm generally takes predictable form and is of finite magnitude. They don't really think that way. See Trump defunding medical research. Capitalists need medical care too, but they think quarterly.
    - nullc 1y ago
darkhorse222 1y ago
Geography still dictates some things in the diversity of the experiences it imparts, though admittedly much of our technology exists to insulate us from that stuff.
SerpentJoe 1y ago
Social media has already homogenized our thoughts so much. So many facts and perspectives are presented that it's impossible to construct our own opinions on it all without taking inspiration from others, and the upvote button provides a convenient consensus.
abnercoimbre 1y ago
What can we do? Would serious efforts to create offline clubs [0] serve as an antidote? This made the rounds on HN [1] recently. Technology for touching grass. [0] https://www.theoffline-club.com/ https://www.theoffline-club.com/ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381168
- tines 1y ago
  Yep, connecting with actual human beings is what life's all about.
eikenberry 1y ago
Curious where you get the idea that regional accents are gone. If you travel around much in the US you'll hear many different regional accents. I have relatives from the west coast, mid-west, south and east coast (we're spread around) and each region has an easily recognizable accent. Some more pronounced than others, but still very much alive.
- hatthew 1y ago
  In my experience I don't notice any difference in accent between the east coast and west coast. The only regional accent I notice in many native english speakers is southern. All other accents seem to be cultural (AAVE, ESL) or dying (older generations have it, younger ones don't).
  - megaloblasto 1y ago
    Having lived for a long time on each coast, this is not my experience at all. Each region has a rich accent.
- modo_mario 1y ago
  I've noticed this more in Belgium Flanders. A region of a postage stamp country compared to the US where accents/dialects often weren't even fully mutually intelligible over distances that weren't so great. This homogenization was first pushed trough education and such but it remained among the more rural folk (in as far as rural exists in such a densely populated region) but now media and migration are rapidly killing it off.
aaron695 1y ago
[dead]

by tines 1y ago

stego-tech 1y ago

The problem in the case of AI is who is curating that homogeneity, and to what end. Dynamic systems like IRC and messengers let folks connect and gravitate more “naturally”, while AI - being a walled garden curated by for-profit entities funded by billionaire Capitalists - naturally have a vested interest in forcing a sort of homogeneity that benefits their bottom line and minimizes risk to their business model. That’s the real threat: reality authoring.

nullc 1y ago
Not sure about that. Billionare Capitalists live in this world too. They might cause harm, sure, but that harm generally takes predictable form and is of finite magnitude. AI behavior on the other hand can cause under-informed users to do crazy things that no one would ever want. The form of the harm is less predictable, the magnitude isn't limited by anything except the user's ability and skepticism. Imagine whatever US president you think is least competent talking to ChatGPT. If their conversation ventures into discussion of a Big Red Switch That Ends The World, it's going to eventually advise on all the reasons the button should be pushed, because that's exactly what would happen in the mountains of narrative material the LLM has been trained on. Hopefully there is no end the world button and even the worst US president isn't going to push it because ChatGPT said it was a good idea. ... But you get the idea, and there absolutely are people leaving their families and doing all manner of crazy stuff because they accidentally prompted the AI into writing fiction starting them and the AI is advising them to live the life of a fictional character. I think AI doomers have it all wrong, AI risk to the extent it exists isn't from any kind of super-intelligence, it's significantly from super-insanity. The AI doesn't need any kind of super-human persuasion, turns out vastly _sub_-human persuasion is more than enough for many. Wealthy people abusing a new communications channel to influence the public isn't a new risk, it's a risk as old as time. It's not irrelevant, by any means, but we do have a long history of dealing with it.
- tines 1y ago
  > I think AI doomers have it all wrong, AI risk to the extent it exists isn't from any kind of super-intelligence, it's significantly from super-insanity. The AI doesn't need any kind of super-human persuasion, turns out vastly _sub_-human persuasion is more than enough for many. Totally agree. We have a level of technology today that is enough to ruin the world. We don’t need to look any further for the threat to our souls.
- Dracophoenix 1y ago
  > AI behavior on the other hand can cause under-informed users to do crazy things that no one would ever want. The form of the harm is less predictable, the magnitude isn't limited by anything except the user's ability and skepticism. One could say the same of the printing press.
  - tines 1y ago
    Not at all. Quantity has a quality all its own.
- k310 1y ago
  I never proposed to either a chatbot or a billionaire [0] Who says that the president isn't already a chatbot, himself? [1] Think about this article. Enjoy. [0] https://people.com/man-proposed-to-his-ai-chatbot-girlfriend-11757334 https://people.com/man-proposed-to-his-ai-chatbot-girlfriend... [1] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgpt-presidency/ https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgp...
- guappa 1y ago
  > Not sure about that. Billionare Capitalists live in this world too. They might cause harm, sure, but that harm generally takes predictable form and is of finite magnitude. They don't really think that way. See Trump defunding medical research. Capitalists need medical care too, but they think quarterly.
  - nullc 1y ago

darkhorse222 1y ago

Geography still dictates some things in the diversity of the experiences it imparts, though admittedly much of our technology exists to insulate us from that stuff.

SerpentJoe 1y ago

Social media has already homogenized our thoughts so much. So many facts and perspectives are presented that it's impossible to construct our own opinions on it all without taking inspiration from others, and the upvote button provides a convenient consensus.

abnercoimbre 1y ago

What can we do? Would serious efforts to create offline clubs [0] serve as an antidote? This made the rounds on HN [1] recently. Technology for touching grass. [0] https://www.theoffline-club.com/ https://www.theoffline-club.com/ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381168

tines 1y ago
Yep, connecting with actual human beings is what life's all about.

eikenberry 1y ago

Curious where you get the idea that regional accents are gone. If you travel around much in the US you'll hear many different regional accents. I have relatives from the west coast, mid-west, south and east coast (we're spread around) and each region has an easily recognizable accent. Some more pronounced than others, but still very much alive.

hatthew 1y ago
In my experience I don't notice any difference in accent between the east coast and west coast. The only regional accent I notice in many native english speakers is southern. All other accents seem to be cultural (AAVE, ESL) or dying (older generations have it, younger ones don't).
- megaloblasto 1y ago
  Having lived for a long time on each coast, this is not my experience at all. Each region has a rich accent.
modo_mario 1y ago
I've noticed this more in Belgium Flanders. A region of a postage stamp country compared to the US where accents/dialects often weren't even fully mutually intelligible over distances that weren't so great. This homogenization was first pushed trough education and such but it remained among the more rural folk (in as far as rural exists in such a densely populated region) but now media and migration are rapidly killing it off.

aaron695 1y ago

[dead]