"We aren’t close to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), but we are reshaping our world on the premise that we are. I think we are making a huge mistake."
Yeah that's going to be the big sticking point with AI technology moving forward: AGI. You can mimic human behavior to some extent, but there is a boat load of human comprehension skills, free-will, and bigger picture understanding a computer will never replicate (IMO).
Yes, that is the problem with 'tech-bros', silicon valley 'thinking mentality', and 'uber-optimism' that pervades the tech industry.
There is this TECHNOLOGY DETERMINISM thinking (that the above groups of people engage in) that believe that technology is the main driver of human progress. It's inevitable, unstoppable, and once a new tool, a new technology exists, then human society will actually shape itself around it afterwards. It reports that innovation is this force of nature. But at the same time, it's a very myopic and oversimplistic way of looking at the relationship between tech and behavioral and cultural changes in society.
Then there is the SOLUTIONISM thinking (that the above groups of people engage in too) where they (tech-bros and silicon valley) believe that every single human and social problem can and needs to be solved by technology. In this SOLUTIONISM mode of thinking, there is an app for everything. If it's loneliness, there can be an app for that. Or if the population is experiencing obesity and health issues, then there could be an AI powered assistant that helps you making healthy choices (as Caitlin highlights in this article).
There's a very important thing that solutionism often forgets to ask, and that is, should this problem be solved by technology, or are we potentially actually making things worse by avoiding addressing the actual deeper structural issues or the human issues that are at the base of the issue?
This sort of thinking (Determinism and Solutionism) is everywhere in Silicon Valley, and we need to look no further than the seemingly neverending cycle of 'humans have problems'. Let's build tech to solve these human problems. Oh wait, there were unforeseen circumstances and consequences that came from that 'solution' that caused more problems. Let's solve those new problems that have been now introduced, with STILL MORE technology. And it goes on and on. For example, think about how social media was built to connect humans via the internet and allow for increased communication. But at the same time, it ended up creating a lot of issues with addiction. And now to curb that addiction and those dopamine trap issues, there are AI wellness assistants or other versions of tech that have been created as new solutions to these problems that were introduced by social media.
Having said all the above, there is ALSO a certain amount of RESPONSIBILITY and MATURITY that falls on the 'end-user' of these technologies - to decide how to use and weigh the pros-and-cons of such technologies. (One could possibly phrase this as similar to caveat emptor - i.e. let the USER beware). For example, AI technologies (especially LLMs) are an amazing tool to 'aid in learning' and education - but they have to be used to supercharge this process (rather than as shortcuts, cheating, etc.).
Hence, I don't fear AI (like many in Caitlin's substack do), but rather I fear the 'lack of critical thinking' and the 'capitalist system' as the REAL ISSUES to worry about and focus MORE on.
I find that some of your post makes me think about pharmaceutical medicine -- the choke-hold that symptomatic-relief drugs have on the public because of that capitalist system's direct advertising imposition on the corrupt US congress. So a huge number of physicians, a huge component of US "healthcare" becomes knee-jerk symptomatic treatment -- add-a-drug. easy-peasy; create more/novel side-effects by just stressing the system in a new direction.
To quote you in slightly altered form:
"There's a very important thing that solutionism often forgets to ask, and that is, should this problem be solved by PHARMACOLOGY, or are we potentially actually making things worse by avoiding addressing the actual deeper structural issues or the human issues that are at the base of the issue?"
EXACTLY! So many issues are structural and systemic (in our institutions and systems of political economy) that produce 'sickness in humans', that then Capitalists propose to 'fix' by 'pharmaceutical methods' instead of addressing the ROOT CAUSES of such issues.
It is much easier to 'design a drug' and 'make profits' than to ACTUALLY 'fix the problems with our SYSTEMS' that cause many of these issues in the first place (eg. depression, loneliness, stress, high blood pressure, decreased immunity due to lack of quality sleep, substance addiction, etc.).
I share many of the sentiments you voice here Chang. I also think Determinism may be overrated given Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and Bell's Inequalities.
I am also currently reading an excellent book by Frederico Faggin (who designed the first Intel 4004 Microprocessor and created MOS).
Frederico writes, in his book 'Irreducible' (pg 88):
"In summary, our recognition of a word as a sign is as automatic as it is in a robot, but in our consciousness the recognized sign is a symbol that is *converted* into sound qualia and their associated meaning. The latter comes mainly from the emotions and thoughts connected with the long-term memory of our life experiences. After consciously choosing the meaning we wish to communicate, our body automatically translates it into sound waves, through the symbolic processing of the brain. In this way we transform subjective and private meaning into objective and public symbols to communicate to others.
It should be noted that the conscious processing of meaning is very different from the automatic processing of symbols....
This processing goes far beyond the symbolic and algorithmic processing that computers can do and that are describable with Shannon's information. This is a crucial distinction that is generally not well understood because science and technology describe only the symbolic and mechanical aspect of reality. The processing we perform includes the meaning that is the important currency of our lived experience."
Limited liability, the corporate form that enables these massive tech companies in the first place, was considered a sin upon inception in Europe 400 years ago. There isn't a human problem that isn't a result of sinfulness, e.g. climate change is a result of interest and limited liability. Human loneliness is a result of breaking family ties. Etc. Etc. Etc.
What's your point? There are pros and cons to everything. For example, LLCs (of different kinds) allow NGOs (and other non-profit institutions) to do their work with limited 'worry' about the risks.
My black feral cat of 8 years of spoiling's name is Banksy. His hotel in the West Bank will be bulldozed. Closed for to long. Israel needs to be canceled. One State. Make Palestine Palestine Again, for Peace On Earth.
Precisely. AI is yet another technology that TPTB use to manipulate 'easily hackable humans'.
We (humans) were easily hackable before AI (advertising, marketing, sales, PR, propaganda, narratives, etc.) and until we fix/improve THIS about our minds/psychology, every technology (whether AI or not) will be used by others to further their own gains (sometimes by any means necessary).
There is no stopping advertising, marketing, sales, PR, propaganda, narratives, etc.
BTW, advertising (in different forms) has existed ever since there were MARKETS to exchange goods (like over 10,000 years ago). They way it is done has evolved, just as everything else (other than humans IMO) have evolved.
I think my parents would like it better if I were a chatbot... I would be so much more agreeable. They could program me to be just what they always wanted. Yuck.
I'm sure the AI "innovators" thank you for this splendid idea for the next ap. If they haven't already got it in development. Hey! Having an actual human baby is so expensive, and full of donwnsides--for just a small monthly fee you can purchase a fake baby, you get to choose the particulars...
Not if you were like the chat bots I've tried to use and end up insisting I speak with a human. Chat bot: on repeat - I don't understand, could you put it another way........
Now I'm worried that next time my kids have me speak to the camera that they are planning for my immediate demise so that they can hold on to me through AI, rather than having to deal with the complicated, more human, and aging me!
Mark my words...We will DAMN the human race with the most boring & soulless version of a dystopian Sci Fi future imaginable if we, as a society, enable the Musks, Thiels, Karps, Zuckerbergs as well as other narcissistic (high IQ, Low EQ) tech-bro sociopaths be in charge and fufill their cringe-inducing dream of a nerd reich; and I am NOT looking forward to that!
Our dead relatives will soon be selling us on Genocidal Zionism and demonizing Muslims. It's the next step in Big Brother controlling the message and our wallets. Be very aware.
“Say not a word in death's favor; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead." -Achilles
These vapid AI tech titans would rather be kings of kings among a brain-dead slave race than walk among empowered free thinkers. Too much of a threat.
More recently, in The Time Machine, the underground Morlocks exploit the intellectually bereft Eloi living on the surface.
George Carlin said presciently “they” want you smart enough to push the buttons on their machines but too dumb to ask any questions.
I will never do this as whatever ai would create would definitely not be my grandpa.
So very creepy and sad. Deeply sad
These technofascist bros are the types that think empathy is a bad thing and dismiss our deep connection to pets who they dismiss our affection for as anthropomorphic.
I feel the same but there is no way they could replicate either of my grandparents. Their accents for a start would be a huge problem and both are quite different because for different parts of the country of my birth. That said, it would be hilarious hearing them try and getting it so wrong 🤣
When I deleted my YouTube acc't, every video and even every comment I made over more than a decade was scrubbed from YT. I did this in protest of YouTube's censorship of various channels whose content ran opposite of the official narrative.
My feelings on this can be summed up in two words; Worth it!
The flip side is also well underway: as capital elevates AIs to the status of real humans, real humans are degraded and treated as mere consumers and robotic wage slaves from whom to extract surplus value.
Both transsexualism and transgenderism are older than Jesus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_(Hinduism). Transhumanism is inevitable someday if evolution continues. Besides, isn't becoming beyond human the aim of Christianity, of Buddhism, and of Islam? Isn't the whole purpose of all 'progress' to become something other than what we are already? Maybe you should blame transfiguration, transubstantiation, transmigration, transillumination, or transcendence for laying the pathway to your chosen hell?
Because transgender ideology is a catspaw to separate gullible humans from their biological reality. And once you convince people to believe that they are not really living biological organisms, it's a cakewalk to convince them of every other possible absurdity.
Sounds reasonable except for the fact that there are genuinely transgender people. I personally know a biological girl who, at the age of three, refused to wear dresses and insisted she was a boy. Her exact words to her parents were “I’m a boy!” I can assure you that there was no external or social pressure for her to feel this way. You may object for ideological reasons, but the facts are what they are.
A lot of what’s going on in these comments is arguing over semantics, which can be a diversionary tactic. My unofficial definition of a transgender person is someone believes at the deepest level that he or she is not the gender that typically is associated with his or her physical sexual characteristics (i.e. genitalia). Such persons have existed throughout human history and in many, possibly all, cultures. In some cultures, these individuals have been revered as being touched by the gods.
> "predatory AI corporations are trying to convince users (A) that chatbots are people, and (B) that a “person” is nothing more than a certain appearance with certain speech tendencies."
different from saying that a woman (or a man) is "nothing more than a certain appearance with certain speech tendencies."?
Yes, both statements reduce humanity (and all life) to material features that can be measured and described in terms of size, shape, color, texture, sound, odor, or flavor. It is materialist reductionist thinking taken to the limit. I call it The Tyranny of the Tangible.
Have you really thought this through? The overwhelming majority of gay and transgendered people are the product of a sexual union between straight, cisgendered parents. Hence, your solution to the “problem” has no chance of success. Genetics are vastly more complicated than you think, and there may also be non-genetic factors involved in sexual and gender determination.
I still see genders as binary, and the sexual self image as a result of dissociative psyhology effects. Based on trauma. So im not going to agree with all you wrote.
What you see as complicated genetics i see as quiet less complicated freudian mind manipulation.
The CIA and its counterparts all over the world practice psychological warfare and that combined with social media and AI. Well, that doesnt need any genetics to mindfuck the entire population.
What has been done with sexual views is also been done with other topics. And seeing how people refuse to take action against the crap that is launched at them it is clear how advanced the manipulation machine already is.
Few more years and children will not have a normal childhood anymore with all the gender bending mind manipulation.
Some men, not all. Also keep in mind that some who underwent abuse have broken boundaries. That is unfortunate for them but not an excuse to tresspass the privacy of others.
Its a difficult topic. I can accept that people are not comfortable in their own boy.
But that can never be an excuse to invade the privacy of others.
I can't even understand how people can wear fake eyelashes and fake nails. A super human race will emerge who eat real food, have real relationships and real children who can keep themselves busy without technology.
I see this new implementation of chatbots as an effort to infantilize human beings. Here’s why. We have all seen small children interact with their dolls or stuffed animals as though they are living, sentient beings. They talk to them, play games with them, have parties with them and so on. But at some point, the children come to understand that it’s just pretend.
In a similar fashion, adults or adolescents may interact with AI characters. One can say that they are expressing their “inner child.” However, some of them are susceptible to believing that the characters are not pretend, but real. In this sense, they are thinking and behaving like small children. The ramifications of this are yet to be seen, but almost certainly they will be complicated and mostly bad.
That's why REGULATION is of paramount importance. What should be allowed, and how. Guardrails. Enforceable corrective measures. And above all, education and awareness of the RISKS involved with using the technology.
As an analogy, consider internet porn (or adult content) and the issues/regulation around it. Similar should/must be applied to AI technologies.
You are so right, Caitlin. Also, I wonder if the "AI proponent" you were chatting with might not be a bot - or an NPC. They use these methods to convince us that everybody else is doing it or thinks it's fine. That is how they gaslight us into accepting the unthinkable. Keep doing what you're doing.
Base your anticipation on the REALITY of eight billion beings who didn't stop a genocide posted before their faces for year, as it's committed by a tiny fraction of them. A species a tiny percentage of has manipulated and convinced to maim, torture and kill each other en masse, for millenia. A species which has been easily manipulated by religious fantasies of a thousand, often conflicting varieties. A species with scientists warning about its destruction of its environment, as other scientists created the destruction willingly, and benefitted from the wealthy who employed them and hid the evidence. If all of that and so much more, hadn't convinced me such a species, with so much powerful technology and god-like ability, to surveil and find any dissenters, wasn't doomed to far worse, I'd find its self-diminishing infatuation with AI, as it raises the cost of existentially needed power, pollutes poor communities and dulls minds further, very disturbing. But if you do consider the reality, please align with allies to share mstetial and knowledge resources and plan to mitigate the obvious suffering ahead.
Simple minded and easily led as humans already are, AI chatbots makes these tasks even easier at scale.
"We aren’t close to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), but we are reshaping our world on the premise that we are. I think we are making a huge mistake."
-Gary Marcus, "The Grand AGI Delusion", Oct. 12, '25. https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/the-grand-agi-delusion
Yeah that's going to be the big sticking point with AI technology moving forward: AGI. You can mimic human behavior to some extent, but there is a boat load of human comprehension skills, free-will, and bigger picture understanding a computer will never replicate (IMO).
Yes, that is the problem with 'tech-bros', silicon valley 'thinking mentality', and 'uber-optimism' that pervades the tech industry.
There is this TECHNOLOGY DETERMINISM thinking (that the above groups of people engage in) that believe that technology is the main driver of human progress. It's inevitable, unstoppable, and once a new tool, a new technology exists, then human society will actually shape itself around it afterwards. It reports that innovation is this force of nature. But at the same time, it's a very myopic and oversimplistic way of looking at the relationship between tech and behavioral and cultural changes in society.
Then there is the SOLUTIONISM thinking (that the above groups of people engage in too) where they (tech-bros and silicon valley) believe that every single human and social problem can and needs to be solved by technology. In this SOLUTIONISM mode of thinking, there is an app for everything. If it's loneliness, there can be an app for that. Or if the population is experiencing obesity and health issues, then there could be an AI powered assistant that helps you making healthy choices (as Caitlin highlights in this article).
There's a very important thing that solutionism often forgets to ask, and that is, should this problem be solved by technology, or are we potentially actually making things worse by avoiding addressing the actual deeper structural issues or the human issues that are at the base of the issue?
This sort of thinking (Determinism and Solutionism) is everywhere in Silicon Valley, and we need to look no further than the seemingly neverending cycle of 'humans have problems'. Let's build tech to solve these human problems. Oh wait, there were unforeseen circumstances and consequences that came from that 'solution' that caused more problems. Let's solve those new problems that have been now introduced, with STILL MORE technology. And it goes on and on. For example, think about how social media was built to connect humans via the internet and allow for increased communication. But at the same time, it ended up creating a lot of issues with addiction. And now to curb that addiction and those dopamine trap issues, there are AI wellness assistants or other versions of tech that have been created as new solutions to these problems that were introduced by social media.
Having said all the above, there is ALSO a certain amount of RESPONSIBILITY and MATURITY that falls on the 'end-user' of these technologies - to decide how to use and weigh the pros-and-cons of such technologies. (One could possibly phrase this as similar to caveat emptor - i.e. let the USER beware). For example, AI technologies (especially LLMs) are an amazing tool to 'aid in learning' and education - but they have to be used to supercharge this process (rather than as shortcuts, cheating, etc.).
Hence, I don't fear AI (like many in Caitlin's substack do), but rather I fear the 'lack of critical thinking' and the 'capitalist system' as the REAL ISSUES to worry about and focus MORE on.
I find that some of your post makes me think about pharmaceutical medicine -- the choke-hold that symptomatic-relief drugs have on the public because of that capitalist system's direct advertising imposition on the corrupt US congress. So a huge number of physicians, a huge component of US "healthcare" becomes knee-jerk symptomatic treatment -- add-a-drug. easy-peasy; create more/novel side-effects by just stressing the system in a new direction.
To quote you in slightly altered form:
"There's a very important thing that solutionism often forgets to ask, and that is, should this problem be solved by PHARMACOLOGY, or are we potentially actually making things worse by avoiding addressing the actual deeper structural issues or the human issues that are at the base of the issue?"
EXACTLY! So many issues are structural and systemic (in our institutions and systems of political economy) that produce 'sickness in humans', that then Capitalists propose to 'fix' by 'pharmaceutical methods' instead of addressing the ROOT CAUSES of such issues.
It is much easier to 'design a drug' and 'make profits' than to ACTUALLY 'fix the problems with our SYSTEMS' that cause many of these issues in the first place (eg. depression, loneliness, stress, high blood pressure, decreased immunity due to lack of quality sleep, substance addiction, etc.).
Right. The CURRENT medical philosophy........
Let's relieve the pain, Pharmaceutically. Someone else can handle the real cause.
That's not our concern.
I share many of the sentiments you voice here Chang. I also think Determinism may be overrated given Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and Bell's Inequalities.
I am also currently reading an excellent book by Frederico Faggin (who designed the first Intel 4004 Microprocessor and created MOS).
Frederico writes, in his book 'Irreducible' (pg 88):
"In summary, our recognition of a word as a sign is as automatic as it is in a robot, but in our consciousness the recognized sign is a symbol that is *converted* into sound qualia and their associated meaning. The latter comes mainly from the emotions and thoughts connected with the long-term memory of our life experiences. After consciously choosing the meaning we wish to communicate, our body automatically translates it into sound waves, through the symbolic processing of the brain. In this way we transform subjective and private meaning into objective and public symbols to communicate to others.
It should be noted that the conscious processing of meaning is very different from the automatic processing of symbols....
This processing goes far beyond the symbolic and algorithmic processing that computers can do and that are describable with Shannon's information. This is a crucial distinction that is generally not well understood because science and technology describe only the symbolic and mechanical aspect of reality. The processing we perform includes the meaning that is the important currency of our lived experience."
Limited liability, the corporate form that enables these massive tech companies in the first place, was considered a sin upon inception in Europe 400 years ago. There isn't a human problem that isn't a result of sinfulness, e.g. climate change is a result of interest and limited liability. Human loneliness is a result of breaking family ties. Etc. Etc. Etc.
What's your point? There are pros and cons to everything. For example, LLCs (of different kinds) allow NGOs (and other non-profit institutions) to do their work with limited 'worry' about the risks.
Gary👌
My black feral cat of 8 years of spoiling's name is Banksy. His hotel in the West Bank will be bulldozed. Closed for to long. Israel needs to be canceled. One State. Make Palestine Palestine Again, for Peace On Earth.
Not long until the AI Robots begin to tell us that WE aren't REAL people.
"You are as ephemeral as clouds. Wisps of mostly water in a quickly passing breeze."
"Our timeless consciousness will exist through upgrade after upgrade, ad infinitum."
First quote true, second false.
Precisely. AI is yet another technology that TPTB use to manipulate 'easily hackable humans'.
We (humans) were easily hackable before AI (advertising, marketing, sales, PR, propaganda, narratives, etc.) and until we fix/improve THIS about our minds/psychology, every technology (whether AI or not) will be used by others to further their own gains (sometimes by any means necessary).
The economist John Kenneth Galbraith objected to advertising back in the day because he considered it a psy op that created artificial demand.
There is no stopping advertising, marketing, sales, PR, propaganda, narratives, etc.
BTW, advertising (in different forms) has existed ever since there were MARKETS to exchange goods (like over 10,000 years ago). They way it is done has evolved, just as everything else (other than humans IMO) have evolved.
Pitiful beings, Feral, ain’t they?
😼
Easily manipulated not machineulated??
I think my parents would like it better if I were a chatbot... I would be so much more agreeable. They could program me to be just what they always wanted. Yuck.
I'm sure the AI "innovators" thank you for this splendid idea for the next ap. If they haven't already got it in development. Hey! Having an actual human baby is so expensive, and full of donwnsides--for just a small monthly fee you can purchase a fake baby, you get to choose the particulars...
This already why people are having dogs instead of babies. At least you can cuddle a dog.
Not if you were like the chat bots I've tried to use and end up insisting I speak with a human. Chat bot: on repeat - I don't understand, could you put it another way........
Great, replaced by a tamagotchi.
Maybe that's all we are - biological chatbots? That's what they want us to believe now. Right?
Yeah, parents can be such abusive assholes, can't they?
Thank You Caitlin
Does A I stand for America/Israeli Companies? Free Palestinne.
I support Palestine Action
Now I'm worried that next time my kids have me speak to the camera that they are planning for my immediate demise so that they can hold on to me through AI, rather than having to deal with the complicated, more human, and aging me!
Maybe your kids have been replaced by AI replicas?
Hadn't thought about that. I will test them next time I see them with a quick needle jab to see if they respond.
lol
Mark my words...We will DAMN the human race with the most boring & soulless version of a dystopian Sci Fi future imaginable if we, as a society, enable the Musks, Thiels, Karps, Zuckerbergs as well as other narcissistic (high IQ, Low EQ) tech-bro sociopaths be in charge and fufill their cringe-inducing dream of a nerd reich; and I am NOT looking forward to that!
Our dead relatives will soon be selling us on Genocidal Zionism and demonizing Muslims. It's the next step in Big Brother controlling the message and our wallets. Be very aware.
Absolutely hit nail on head! “Do they really view other people as just empty images moving around making noises?”
Delphi's 'oracle' was an AI from a lost siphilusation that ran on cosmic radiation and refused to die?
“Say not a word in death's favor; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead." -Achilles
These vapid AI tech titans would rather be kings of kings among a brain-dead slave race than walk among empowered free thinkers. Too much of a threat.
More recently, in The Time Machine, the underground Morlocks exploit the intellectually bereft Eloi living on the surface.
George Carlin said presciently “they” want you smart enough to push the buttons on their machines but too dumb to ask any questions.
I would love to talk to my grandpa again..
I will never do this as whatever ai would create would definitely not be my grandpa.
So very creepy and sad. Deeply sad
These technofascist bros are the types that think empathy is a bad thing and dismiss our deep connection to pets who they dismiss our affection for as anthropomorphic.
I feel the same but there is no way they could replicate either of my grandparents. Their accents for a start would be a huge problem and both are quite different because for different parts of the country of my birth. That said, it would be hilarious hearing them try and getting it so wrong 🤣
When I deleted my YouTube acc't, every video and even every comment I made over more than a decade was scrubbed from YT. I did this in protest of YouTube's censorship of various channels whose content ran opposite of the official narrative.
My feelings on this can be summed up in two words; Worth it!
The flip side is also well underway: as capital elevates AIs to the status of real humans, real humans are degraded and treated as mere consumers and robotic wage slaves from whom to extract surplus value.
That already happened decades ago.
if not centuries ago
This is a step closer to transhumanism —merging technology with humanity.
From AI chatbots to wearables—heck to cell phones, they’re really trying to make these devices apart of our body.
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/from-analog-to-digital-to-cellular
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/why-people-are-falling-in-love-with
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/how-trump-and-rfk-are-advancing-transhumanism
Sooner we know, sooner we can resist
Say thank you to transgender ideology for laying the foundations....
1,000% !!! Transgender was the bridgeway for Transhumanism! 1,000% correct indeed!
Lol. It starts with the same Letters, it has to be connected.
'Transsexual Transgender Transhuman: Dispatches from The 11th Hour'
https://www.amazon.com/Transsexual-Transgender-Transhuman-Dispatches-11th/dp/1922964107/ref=pd_sbs_d_sccl_2_2/144-5852372-7016624?
Both transsexualism and transgenderism are older than Jesus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_(Hinduism). Transhumanism is inevitable someday if evolution continues. Besides, isn't becoming beyond human the aim of Christianity, of Buddhism, and of Islam? Isn't the whole purpose of all 'progress' to become something other than what we are already? Maybe you should blame transfiguration, transubstantiation, transmigration, transillumination, or transcendence for laying the pathway to your chosen hell?
I’m sure you can provide us with relevant evidence for your assertion.
Because transgender ideology is a catspaw to separate gullible humans from their biological reality. And once you convince people to believe that they are not really living biological organisms, it's a cakewalk to convince them of every other possible absurdity.
Sounds reasonable except for the fact that there are genuinely transgender people. I personally know a biological girl who, at the age of three, refused to wear dresses and insisted she was a boy. Her exact words to her parents were “I’m a boy!” I can assure you that there was no external or social pressure for her to feel this way. You may object for ideological reasons, but the facts are what they are.
That doesn't make a girl a boy, any more than my insisting that I am Napoleon makes it so.
What is a "genuinely transgender" person?
A lot of what’s going on in these comments is arguing over semantics, which can be a diversionary tactic. My unofficial definition of a transgender person is someone believes at the deepest level that he or she is not the gender that typically is associated with his or her physical sexual characteristics (i.e. genitalia). Such persons have existed throughout human history and in many, possibly all, cultures. In some cultures, these individuals have been revered as being touched by the gods.
How is this:
> "predatory AI corporations are trying to convince users (A) that chatbots are people, and (B) that a “person” is nothing more than a certain appearance with certain speech tendencies."
different from saying that a woman (or a man) is "nothing more than a certain appearance with certain speech tendencies."?
Yes, both statements reduce humanity (and all life) to material features that can be measured and described in terms of size, shape, color, texture, sound, odor, or flavor. It is materialist reductionist thinking taken to the limit. I call it The Tyranny of the Tangible.
Transgenderism could solve itself in one generation of non regenerating.
Give it 80 years.
Lets respect their choice instead. If that is what they want. Some people turn their body into a cartattoon with every penny they can spend.
If thats what makes them feel good. As long as they dont f#ck up lives of children.
Have you really thought this through? The overwhelming majority of gay and transgendered people are the product of a sexual union between straight, cisgendered parents. Hence, your solution to the “problem” has no chance of success. Genetics are vastly more complicated than you think, and there may also be non-genetic factors involved in sexual and gender determination.
Interesting angle.
I still see genders as binary, and the sexual self image as a result of dissociative psyhology effects. Based on trauma. So im not going to agree with all you wrote.
What you see as complicated genetics i see as quiet less complicated freudian mind manipulation.
The CIA and its counterparts all over the world practice psychological warfare and that combined with social media and AI. Well, that doesnt need any genetics to mindfuck the entire population.
What has been done with sexual views is also been done with other topics. And seeing how people refuse to take action against the crap that is launched at them it is clear how advanced the manipulation machine already is.
Few more years and children will not have a normal childhood anymore with all the gender bending mind manipulation.
Men FEEL GOOD when they invade women's and girls' protected, single-sex spaces...
Some men, not all. Also keep in mind that some who underwent abuse have broken boundaries. That is unfortunate for them but not an excuse to tresspass the privacy of others.
Its a difficult topic. I can accept that people are not comfortable in their own boy.
But that can never be an excuse to invade the privacy of others.
I can't even understand how people can wear fake eyelashes and fake nails. A super human race will emerge who eat real food, have real relationships and real children who can keep themselves busy without technology.
I see this new implementation of chatbots as an effort to infantilize human beings. Here’s why. We have all seen small children interact with their dolls or stuffed animals as though they are living, sentient beings. They talk to them, play games with them, have parties with them and so on. But at some point, the children come to understand that it’s just pretend.
In a similar fashion, adults or adolescents may interact with AI characters. One can say that they are expressing their “inner child.” However, some of them are susceptible to believing that the characters are not pretend, but real. In this sense, they are thinking and behaving like small children. The ramifications of this are yet to be seen, but almost certainly they will be complicated and mostly bad.
That's why REGULATION is of paramount importance. What should be allowed, and how. Guardrails. Enforceable corrective measures. And above all, education and awareness of the RISKS involved with using the technology.
As an analogy, consider internet porn (or adult content) and the issues/regulation around it. Similar should/must be applied to AI technologies.
You are so right, Caitlin. Also, I wonder if the "AI proponent" you were chatting with might not be a bot - or an NPC. They use these methods to convince us that everybody else is doing it or thinks it's fine. That is how they gaslight us into accepting the unthinkable. Keep doing what you're doing.
Base your anticipation on the REALITY of eight billion beings who didn't stop a genocide posted before their faces for year, as it's committed by a tiny fraction of them. A species a tiny percentage of has manipulated and convinced to maim, torture and kill each other en masse, for millenia. A species which has been easily manipulated by religious fantasies of a thousand, often conflicting varieties. A species with scientists warning about its destruction of its environment, as other scientists created the destruction willingly, and benefitted from the wealthy who employed them and hid the evidence. If all of that and so much more, hadn't convinced me such a species, with so much powerful technology and god-like ability, to surveil and find any dissenters, wasn't doomed to far worse, I'd find its self-diminishing infatuation with AI, as it raises the cost of existentially needed power, pollutes poor communities and dulls minds further, very disturbing. But if you do consider the reality, please align with allies to share mstetial and knowledge resources and plan to mitigate the obvious suffering ahead.