While I am in the office during the day, Puusti the Dog sits up on the back of a couch, looking out the window at the passing traffic and people walking by. He isn't longing to go out at the moment, since it is getting cooler and wetter, plus I walk him often enough, but he does enjoy the views. Even at night he sits up there looking out, even though there isn't much to see for me.
Since I am home so much by myself, I get why people end up relying on pets to keep them company. The "crazy cat lady" became that way due to loneliness. Some will claim that it is because people are terrible that they drew away from human relationships to begin with, but that is a cop out. Yes, there are plenty of terrible people, but we all have the need for companionship and the fact is that we are getting worse at being in relationships. All relationships, not just those of the romantic persuasion.
Loneliness Should not be a thing in this world, considering how large the population is and how many ways we can stay connected. Yet, it is perhaps just these factors that are driving separation and disconnection. In the past, we used to spend our time far more locally and kinetically, not only getting to know each other in the real world, but becoming relevant in the lives of others also. Moving to the digital landscape and using it the way we do, has taken away a lot of relevancy because there it is far more pseudonymous.
Yes, people might have a real name and face at times, but even then it is a façade, a curated mask that covers true beliefs and more importantly, actions. We can take it at face value, but that digital face rarely aligns with the reality of the person behind it. Yet, we are attaching ourselves to strangers as if we know who and how they actually are, without any real insight into it. And the marketing empowered by our imagination, lifts them up on a pedestal, leaving those around us locally, looking pretty drab.
Most people probably don't agree with me and say they value the people around them, but if they are spending a lot of time on social media as well, it means they are compromised. They are comparing their reality, to the dis-reality they spend hours scrolling each day. And over the last few years, that dis-reality has been further warped by AI development that is so realistic it fools people daily into believing the impossible, or the never happened.
I think a lot of the problems we face as a species comes down to our inability to build strong, healthy relationships today. Instead, we are more influenced by feeling that we should have people support us no matter what we believe or do. The digital landscape is the equivalent of being a dictator surrounded by yes-men, where we demand what we want and get what we want, with very little effort and no pushback. We are informationally spoiled, but what we are surrounding ourselves with is rarely what is actually valuable for our personal growth, let alone the growth of our communities.
I don't think it will happen in my lifetime, but if there is a potential positive to having AI do all of the meaningful labour, then it could be that we then rediscover what it means to be in meaningful relationships and part of a valuable community. Not monetary value, but human value. The challenge with this is that even before currency for trade was invented, we traded our skill and abilities within our tribes. But, what will we trade when our skills and abilities are useless for providing for the tribe?
It is going to be strange, because even now I feel that many people are getting boring through a lack of real world personal experience, where all they can speak of is a regurgitation of their digital consumption. In the future, people won't have many varied tasks that they do, so can't talk about them. So, there won't be as much variation in experience. People will all be drinking from the same wells, creating very little gaps for interesting conversation. Essentially, we would be talking to ourselves.
Which is what many people are doing now with AI anyway.
And they believe they are having a conversation. It is a hallucination, but it isn't in the answers the AI is giving, it is in the belief that this is a healthy and valuable relationship. But, since health and valuable relationships are in such short supply and a lot of people haven't experienced them at any time in their lives, it might be easy to accept an inferior substitute as the real deal.
Or that loneliness is normal.
Taraz
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At my age, I am finding that all people can speak of is their medical conditions, the preponderance of medical appointments they have coming up, and how much they like their medical personnel. Those like them who are also consumed by disease have become their tribe.
Both AI and medicine are poisoning our minds, and medicine is poisoning our bodies
Just last week I was joking about this with a guy at the gym. He is under forty and we were sharing surgery stories :D
I think pretty much everything we consume today is toxic, yet we attribute toxicity to anyone who says what we don't want to hear.
That's the problem in a nutshell. We've been diverted from seeing what is truly harmful to us, to focusing on, and hating, things that do no harm to us at all.
I think you might be surprised how fast the AI is going to replace human labor... I would bet that most human jobs are going to be gone within the next ten years...
Oh, that is going to happen in my lifetime. I meant the bit that people will start to value meaningful relationships again.
AI is going to decimate the job markets and therefore everyone on earth and I will not be surprised at how fast at all, since I have been calling it for years already. :)
I actually just got back from my annual conference that I attend and despite the impression I give that I am not good at socializing, I do a ton of socializing in that environment. I don't know why either. Maybe comfort, perhaps being with people who do the same job as me or similar. I really don't know.
Perhaps confidence in what you do around people who know what you do?
That could be part of it.
Maybe this is the best sentence I have ever read. In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari says that human misery began the day humans started farming.
He is right. A human who could find food in the forests now starts producing it, and this is an opportunity to separate from nature. And now we have reached a point where humans have gained so much leeway that they are continuing their lives with artificial intelligence.
He might be right, considering that is also when we started to get fat.
Last week I sat with 3 friends at a cafe and realized nobody had a real story from their own week. Everyone just talked about videos they saw online. When we stop doing real things outside, we run out of things to say.
This is what I have seen with many people and, this is what most kids I talk to do. Everything they say, is from a movie, a meme, a song... nothing of their own experience.
Exactly. Hopefully we all learn to put the screens down a bit more before we forget how to actually live.
Lota also liked to climb at high spot. But I am not sure if she was doing this to see the street or to enjoy the sun.
Depends how old perhaps!!
I think one of the biggest challenges with AI is that people treat it like a master and rely on it too much. It has also started to weaken our ability to think critically and create things ourselves.
Solutions to problems require creativity, and we are becoming less creative. I predict doom.
Starting from Puusti looking out the window, you've presented a brilliant and profound analysis of modern society's loneliness and artificial digital relationships.
Every word here is 100% true. Today, we live in a digital world where deep real-world connections are lost, and people are trapped in the illusion of fake profiles and AI. The small, local, and real-life experiences used to build genuine human bonds, which are fading away now. Since everyone is consuming from the same digital wells, people's thoughts and conversations are becoming increasingly monotonous day by day.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful and timely reflection.
I think there's an important difference between using AI as a tool for thinking and creativity, and seeing it as a replacement for human relationships.
Yesterday, I also read something with the same idea as your post about AI, and like there, I thought of the first time cameras were used many people opposed them back then, but now analog cameras are mostly just for decoration.
As a painter, I find AI useful for exploring ideas, but this technology can never replace the experience of standing in front of another person and observing their facial expressions, emotions, and human flaws. It's these real human experiences that give art depth. Maybe the main problem isn't AI itself, but rather how easily we can use technology to escape real human connections.
I am a crazy dog person. Lost my best buddy Bailey a while back. Got a new buddy Lilly now. She just ain't the same though. Which is good in a way. Because I'm not the same as when I needed Bailey. Was in a dark place and wanted nothing to do with the outside world. My wife and Bailey were my only real confidants. Out of that dark place now and don't think I need to rely on Lilly like I did Bailey.
We seem to not want to build strong relationships because it takes some work. We want an easy button. Building relationships means facing possible rejection, betrayal, or even loss. Why go through that? Take the easy way out and get an AI fuck buddy.
What a beautiful and touching moment! The way sunlight falls on Puusti makes this photo truly special.