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dumberquestions 14 minutes ago [-]
A lot of AI uses get endlessly debated online and outside, but the most shocking to me is that even genuine human interaction is somehow now up for debate, if I'm not interacting with real people then what even is the point of doing anything.
Gigachad 11 minutes ago [-]
We have a genuinely society ending problem on our hands. Virtually everything on the internet is fake.
At this point I think governments need to straight up ban social media and somehow force people to go outside and see each other face to face.
oenton 42 minutes ago [-]
> Getting on a video call was eye opening in many ways. Seeing the exhaustion on his whole body.
This describes a non trivial number of my colleagues. What's more concerning is witnessing the cognitive decline, for example struggling to debug straight forward problems[1] and mindlessly copy/pasting stack traces into a chat box. While I'm definitely guilty of the latter I usually resort to that when I'm tired, or just hoping to avoid actually thinking through a problem because I have N other tasks to complete, which really ties back to the whole exhaustion thing.
Anyway thank you for putting this into words and congratulations on your recent fledglings. (I had to Google that one. Bird analogies aren't my strong suit.)
Some of my coworkers have straight up ceased being human and have just become proxies to chatbots. I don’t even bother talking to them or reading their messages anymore because it’s all entirely AI.
cheschire 1 hours ago [-]
Maybe this is a response to becoming an empty nester. You’re entering the next phase and taking time to reflect.
The American monoculture, especially the “bigger” version you probably see in Texas, gets a little more direct observation when you’re between phases of life.
Right now the monoculture is leaning into heavily using AI in all aspects of life while also outwardly hating it… and also gambling for some reason.
You’ll probably start looking to retirement goals next, but those plans will likely go through phases themselves as grandkids may or may not enter the picture.
This won’t be the last time you have one of these out-of-body type self awareness experiences.
variety8675 4 hours ago [-]
Using AI agents to email each other is just a reflection of "If you're not going to bother to write it, I'm not going to read it"
joshtronic 4 hours ago [-]
How would you approach this. You email a company that has something you want to license. An agent responds. Do you abandon your pursuits at that point and consider other options?
vips7L 3 hours ago [-]
Yes.
joshtronic 3 hours ago [-]
Let's say it was critical for the business, with no viable alternatives? I'm all for "find a way or make one" but there are times when you need to be more practical than dogmatic.
Would love to hear your thoughts
setr 2 hours ago [-]
Sometimes in business you ultimately and unavoidably have to eat shit, so it is what it is. But you should strive to be someone who doesn’t have to eat shit, and until then, if you still gotta eat shit, then try not to make a habit of it.
joshtronic 2 hours ago [-]
Well said :)
onemoresoop 1 hours ago [-]
Well, if you start accepting eating shit in a new way you’re only fooling yourself you won’t accept it again.
AnimalMuppet 4 hours ago [-]
Depends on how close other options are to what I want.
But if you're going to have an agent rather than a human respond to enquiries from potential customers (= $), then I'm not convinced I'm going to like how you respond after I am a customer.
joshtronic 4 hours ago [-]
Yeah, that closeness of options makes it tough to really dig the heels in. Also, you can become a customer today, and have them fire their entire support staff and replace it with an agent tomorrow. Dwindling QC and CS isn't a new concern though, just need to make sure the space isn't owned by a single company
bigstrat2003 2 hours ago [-]
It's certainly true that companies can take a turn for the worse and stop treating their customers well. But a company using bots to communicate with prospective customers is sending you a signal that they already treat their customers poorly. Maybe you don't have any alternative options, but if you do, it's wise to listen to the unintentional warning this company is giving you.
joshtronic 1 hours ago [-]
Wasn't really the point of my post, but definitely something for me to think about. Appreciate you reading!
variety8675 4 hours ago [-]
I mean honestly yes, if given the choice not to interact with an AI system for something I will. Simple example, the Comcast AI slop bot stonewalls you online, but you can walk into a retail location and have a human resolve the issue in 30 seconds
joshtronic 4 hours ago [-]
Totally get that. I think the fear there is that maybe this is the timeline where we just keep running out of those options.
I still favor a longer line with a human or two in the loop at the store rather than self checkout. Depending on the time of day, self checkout is the only options. Fortunately, there's usually problems and you still get a chance to connect with a human :)
RMS drew a line in the sand with how he interacts with closed-source systems. Starting to wonder if that's how extreme we need to be AI systems.
gojongo 3 hours ago [-]
[dead]
jostylr 1 hours ago [-]
Reasonable piece. I always thought the hope/promise of AI was to make it do the work we don't want to do so that we can enjoy life the way we want to which is typically socializing with humans? I get that it generates so much that if you are reviewing thoughtfully everything it is doing, it can suck you away like being a worker at a conveyor belt, but hopefully that is a short period of growing pains. A related take on staying human in the age of AI: https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/the-lost-subject-ai...
joshtronic 1 hours ago [-]
I'm pretty biased these days, but I don't think the bean counters share that vision of the positive impact that AI could have on our working lives.
Appreciate the link!
TruffleLabs 4 hours ago [-]
Thanks for the Bill and Ted reference at the end ;)
joshtronic 4 hours ago [-]
I'm humbled that somebody made it to the end. Doubly blessed because it's not every day you get to make 2 Keanu Reeves movie references in one post
verdverm 4 hours ago [-]
made it to the end as well :wq
it was good, resonates with my own experience dialing it back and reconnecting with other human beings, I like being pro-Ai, but not pilled-Ai, and trying to moderate the Ai discourse
joshtronic 4 hours ago [-]
:wq indeed :)
it's been a wild ride, in a lot of ways I feel like I speed ran running my EQ into the ground, only to be reborn like a phoenix.
I've been told in the past to "think like an entrepreneur, not an engineer" and in a lot of ways I think that was bleeding into how I was approaching AI-usage.
I'm on your blog now, hoping you've posted your own musings so I can read them!
verdverm 4 hours ago [-]
I have not :x
Supposed to be redoing that, I've been making zines instead (physical blogs?)
joshtronic 4 hours ago [-]
really? that's freakin' cool. what kind of topics??
I'm old, so I remember 'zines from the 80s and 90s :)
verdverm 4 hours ago [-]
Mostly political oriented, one of my returns to humanity was getting involved in my local indivisible. I have one on May Day, lots of Get Out The Vote, "changing the constitution" (wip). I've been using the exercise to learn the history of things.
I'm currently (like right now) working on A Survey of Ai Regulation (and more), which is far too much to fit into the mini-zines I make, and will be used to force my hand into updating my site q:]
joshtronic 3 hours ago [-]
Very cool! Heck, need to force that hand just to help spread the word about the other zines! :)))
verdverm 2 hours ago [-]
The zines we make are being distributed all over Washington State now. (we, because I formed a zine club with a few of the gals from the Indivisible book club) They are so much better from the group effort and diverse perspectives.
I do intend to get them up there, found a mini-zine format (single page, 8 pane) which saves paper and folds. Here's a link to the goods in the meantime
Oh snap, I remember that post!! (or I'm mistaking it with some other post that also linked to a Zine maker) -- do you happen to have Little Free Libraries in your neck of the woods? pretty good for distributing stuff like that
verdverm 23 minutes ago [-]
yeah, I leave my zines in the little library boxes around the neighborhood and mentioned Seattle Zine Fest (underwhelming since I've now been)
dieselgate 2 hours ago [-]
I'm glad for Author to write on the subject but think the article was tough to get through due to undeveloped ideas and too many cliches. I was additionally confused where the Kool Aid thing was going because the "drinking it" phrase originates from LSD/acid tests--mentioned in the wiki [1] page but not the post.
Where do we go from here and what is the intermediate ground of leveraging LLMs and Agentic AI? It's odd for me to read about someone going "all in" on AI--to the point of using it for email with humans--and then having a massive reversal.
I think this is a really interesting case study and temporal snapshot of where we are with AI technologies. I have always been wary|skeptical|cynical of the technology and this is affirming but also just confusing.
Thanks for the feedback! When I ran it through an LLM it had some similar feedback that I purposefully didn't action on ;)
cpoile 4 hours ago [-]
One of the nicer blogs I’ve read on the subject, thanks Josh.
joshtronic 3 hours ago [-]
Appreciate the kind words, tyty :bow:
DubiousPusher 2 hours ago [-]
To the chagrin of the unfortunate General Foods corporation, the water flavor enhancement product used at Jones Town was actually Flavor Aid.
And maybe that's a pretty good analogy to what's going on with this post. It contemplates a world of suburban parental neglect and private burrito taxis and lays them at the feet of AI. But these were happening before LLMs burst onto the scene.
In a world of $3,000 rent and $3,000 medication and $3,000 preschool, what do you expect will happen?
joshtronic 2 hours ago [-]
TIL on the Flavor Aid. Appreciate you taking the time to read and respond!
levelZero 3 hours ago [-]
Pretty sure you only get to drink the Kool-Aid once. At least in UK this is Jim Jones ref.
joshtronic 2 hours ago [-]
Similar here in the states, but we've neutered it a bit to effectively describe the "One of us, one of us" scene from the movie Freaks
At this point I think governments need to straight up ban social media and somehow force people to go outside and see each other face to face.
This describes a non trivial number of my colleagues. What's more concerning is witnessing the cognitive decline, for example struggling to debug straight forward problems[1] and mindlessly copy/pasting stack traces into a chat box. While I'm definitely guilty of the latter I usually resort to that when I'm tired, or just hoping to avoid actually thinking through a problem because I have N other tasks to complete, which really ties back to the whole exhaustion thing.
Anyway thank you for putting this into words and congratulations on your recent fledglings. (I had to Google that one. Bird analogies aren't my strong suit.)
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49582782
The American monoculture, especially the “bigger” version you probably see in Texas, gets a little more direct observation when you’re between phases of life.
Right now the monoculture is leaning into heavily using AI in all aspects of life while also outwardly hating it… and also gambling for some reason.
You’ll probably start looking to retirement goals next, but those plans will likely go through phases themselves as grandkids may or may not enter the picture.
This won’t be the last time you have one of these out-of-body type self awareness experiences.
Would love to hear your thoughts
But if you're going to have an agent rather than a human respond to enquiries from potential customers (= $), then I'm not convinced I'm going to like how you respond after I am a customer.
I still favor a longer line with a human or two in the loop at the store rather than self checkout. Depending on the time of day, self checkout is the only options. Fortunately, there's usually problems and you still get a chance to connect with a human :)
RMS drew a line in the sand with how he interacts with closed-source systems. Starting to wonder if that's how extreme we need to be AI systems.
Appreciate the link!
it was good, resonates with my own experience dialing it back and reconnecting with other human beings, I like being pro-Ai, but not pilled-Ai, and trying to moderate the Ai discourse
it's been a wild ride, in a lot of ways I feel like I speed ran running my EQ into the ground, only to be reborn like a phoenix.
I've been told in the past to "think like an entrepreneur, not an engineer" and in a lot of ways I think that was bleeding into how I was approaching AI-usage.
I'm on your blog now, hoping you've posted your own musings so I can read them!
Supposed to be redoing that, I've been making zines instead (physical blogs?)
I'm old, so I remember 'zines from the 80s and 90s :)
I'm currently (like right now) working on A Survey of Ai Regulation (and more), which is far too much to fit into the mini-zines I make, and will be used to force my hand into updating my site q:]
I do intend to get them up there, found a mini-zine format (single page, 8 pane) which saves paper and folds. Here's a link to the goods in the meantime
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653667
Where do we go from here and what is the intermediate ground of leveraging LLMs and Agentic AI? It's odd for me to read about someone going "all in" on AI--to the point of using it for email with humans--and then having a massive reversal.
I think this is a really interesting case study and temporal snapshot of where we are with AI technologies. I have always been wary|skeptical|cynical of the technology and this is affirming but also just confusing.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
And maybe that's a pretty good analogy to what's going on with this post. It contemplates a world of suburban parental neglect and private burrito taxis and lays them at the feet of AI. But these were happening before LLMs burst onto the scene.
In a world of $3,000 rent and $3,000 medication and $3,000 preschool, what do you expect will happen?