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the good and the bad; the wonder and the falling apart
Sunday, June 22nd, 2025 10:46 pmErrant thought from June 13:
The world keeps seeming more and more dystopian. But it is really amazing to be able to ask a computer complex things in natural language, and get back coherent, valid responses in natural language too. My mind often glosses over that wonder because of everything else going on. And also because of knowing that wonderful achievement has its own associated dystopian aspects to it, which will just get worse and worse as they are exploited.
.
Like this: The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel
.
Kids growing up now and in the future may find it difficult to believe actual photos and movie footage from past atrocities, including the Holocaust. They will have no way to trust that the images are real and were not generated by AI. Perhaps if they looked through an old book with photos, and could trust that it was published in the year it said it was, before AI was capable of what it is now, perhaps that would be believable to them. But books are becoming rarer, especially old ones. Old books didn't have many photos. Were there many books with photos of atrocities? Encyclopedias would have perhaps a few photos for each topic. Certain magazines were more likely to have extensive photos. There may be digitized versions of the books and magazines available online, but then you get back to how can you trust that the digitized item you're looking at isn't a fake?
I'm already at that distrusting stage with much of what I see online. When you don't know what is trustworthy, you end up choosing to believe the things which align with your already-formed beliefs. "This aligns with my beliefs; I don't know if it is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was." "This doesn't align with my beliefs; why spend time and mental effort considering that it might be true when it very well might not be?"
The world keeps seeming more and more dystopian. But it is really amazing to be able to ask a computer complex things in natural language, and get back coherent, valid responses in natural language too. My mind often glosses over that wonder because of everything else going on. And also because of knowing that wonderful achievement has its own associated dystopian aspects to it, which will just get worse and worse as they are exploited.
.
Like this: The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel
.
Kids growing up now and in the future may find it difficult to believe actual photos and movie footage from past atrocities, including the Holocaust. They will have no way to trust that the images are real and were not generated by AI. Perhaps if they looked through an old book with photos, and could trust that it was published in the year it said it was, before AI was capable of what it is now, perhaps that would be believable to them. But books are becoming rarer, especially old ones. Old books didn't have many photos. Were there many books with photos of atrocities? Encyclopedias would have perhaps a few photos for each topic. Certain magazines were more likely to have extensive photos. There may be digitized versions of the books and magazines available online, but then you get back to how can you trust that the digitized item you're looking at isn't a fake?
I'm already at that distrusting stage with much of what I see online. When you don't know what is trustworthy, you end up choosing to believe the things which align with your already-formed beliefs. "This aligns with my beliefs; I don't know if it is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was." "This doesn't align with my beliefs; why spend time and mental effort considering that it might be true when it very well might not be?"
