I appreciate you were only using it as one example among many potential examples of a general and alarming phenomenon, but I wrote about the Falklands fox 14 years ago (!) on my Friends of Charles Darwin website, reporting Darwin's thoughts on the (at that time) still extant creature.
Hello, thank you for your work. The part on what you call "insulation" reminded me a lot about a chapter from "what happended in the 20th century" by Sloterdjik in which he mentions spheres (both material and symbolic) which englobe us so as to fulfill all our desires. Also there is this french science fiction novelist in France named Alain Damasio which is quite popular there, that writes novels on similar issues and who's ideas are inspired I believe from philosophers like Deleuze, Spinoza and Nietzsche. He has this concept of "techno cocoon" like a nest in which we are nurtured and isolated.
Finally, I think of an italian philosopher, Emmanuel Coccia who wrote à book on the philosophy of the house, and it resonates to me with the fact that today young People but also most People (I believe) are more and more in their houses which are providing most of their desires.
Finally, there is this american thinker named Zak stein, (very interesting thinker, developemental psychologist, educator, and philosopher) talks about the dangers of humanizing LLMs (making you believe that they are humans), but also of the potentials of LLMs if they remain dehumanized, in which case they could potentially open immense new opportunities for learning especially. He wrote a book on the future of education in our (For american/west) socio-technical context, drawing on integral theory which is an interesting world of ideas. Thinking as à developemental psychologist allows to understand to some extent how rapidly can a culture change, in times as "fast" as 2024.
I am very curious myself how the integration of online community with "local" community will play out in the future with the "digitalization" of dating, hiring, politics, Wisdom, art, social communication, etc...
Wow, Jared. I've been a fan of yours for a while and have greatly enjoyed your humble approach to the philosophical issues in the world. This is a profound piece that I really enjoyed. I do have a question concerning the ethics of AI "friends." I don't love discussions of ethics (a rather unfortunate distaste considering I'm a philosopher, I actually prefer metaphysics, which is equally controversial and troubling, haha!), but I was wondering what your thoughts were on the ethical implications of creating an AI program like Friend. Rather than creating an app for lonely humans to connect and meet with each other, Friend seems to capitalize on feelings of loneliness without actually doing anything about it. I mean, it feels unethical. It might not be unethical to use the app, but I can't help but feel that the creators of the app have made a critical unethical decision to make it. These are desperate people who long for connection, and it seems that the creators of Friend have found a way to earn profit from that. Rather, they could create an app (that you still have to pay for) that connects people, actual people. Instead, they choose AI? I don't know, it just seems wrong or even like it's taking advantage of people's loneliness. What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Keep writing! God be with you.
I think it really depends — and it is hard to assess intentions. But since I refer to these sorts of products as band-aids being put on gaping wounds, I think it is obvious I'm against them.
We live in a pretty well-documented loneliness crisis, and the solution to that isn't going to be technology. It is a human problem that has to be solved via basic human means (what Putnam calls be a 'joiner' for instance).
I found myself reading this considering how easy misinformation, misrepresentation, and other sordid uses of the internet find their ways into our lives - AI, right now, seems to be at the forefront of these misdeeds. I agree: at best AI will look like some sort of pet and not a partner in life, and at worst, AI will continue to magnify the misbehavior that humans seem so easily to reflect online.
I appreciate you were only using it as one example among many potential examples of a general and alarming phenomenon, but I wrote about the Falklands fox 14 years ago (!) on my Friends of Charles Darwin website, reporting Darwin's thoughts on the (at that time) still extant creature.
http://friendsofdarwin.com/20100618-2/
Hello, thank you for your work. The part on what you call "insulation" reminded me a lot about a chapter from "what happended in the 20th century" by Sloterdjik in which he mentions spheres (both material and symbolic) which englobe us so as to fulfill all our desires. Also there is this french science fiction novelist in France named Alain Damasio which is quite popular there, that writes novels on similar issues and who's ideas are inspired I believe from philosophers like Deleuze, Spinoza and Nietzsche. He has this concept of "techno cocoon" like a nest in which we are nurtured and isolated.
Finally, I think of an italian philosopher, Emmanuel Coccia who wrote à book on the philosophy of the house, and it resonates to me with the fact that today young People but also most People (I believe) are more and more in their houses which are providing most of their desires.
Finally, there is this american thinker named Zak stein, (very interesting thinker, developemental psychologist, educator, and philosopher) talks about the dangers of humanizing LLMs (making you believe that they are humans), but also of the potentials of LLMs if they remain dehumanized, in which case they could potentially open immense new opportunities for learning especially. He wrote a book on the future of education in our (For american/west) socio-technical context, drawing on integral theory which is an interesting world of ideas. Thinking as à developemental psychologist allows to understand to some extent how rapidly can a culture change, in times as "fast" as 2024.
I am very curious myself how the integration of online community with "local" community will play out in the future with the "digitalization" of dating, hiring, politics, Wisdom, art, social communication, etc...
Wow, Jared. I've been a fan of yours for a while and have greatly enjoyed your humble approach to the philosophical issues in the world. This is a profound piece that I really enjoyed. I do have a question concerning the ethics of AI "friends." I don't love discussions of ethics (a rather unfortunate distaste considering I'm a philosopher, I actually prefer metaphysics, which is equally controversial and troubling, haha!), but I was wondering what your thoughts were on the ethical implications of creating an AI program like Friend. Rather than creating an app for lonely humans to connect and meet with each other, Friend seems to capitalize on feelings of loneliness without actually doing anything about it. I mean, it feels unethical. It might not be unethical to use the app, but I can't help but feel that the creators of the app have made a critical unethical decision to make it. These are desperate people who long for connection, and it seems that the creators of Friend have found a way to earn profit from that. Rather, they could create an app (that you still have to pay for) that connects people, actual people. Instead, they choose AI? I don't know, it just seems wrong or even like it's taking advantage of people's loneliness. What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Keep writing! God be with you.
I think it really depends — and it is hard to assess intentions. But since I refer to these sorts of products as band-aids being put on gaping wounds, I think it is obvious I'm against them.
We live in a pretty well-documented loneliness crisis, and the solution to that isn't going to be technology. It is a human problem that has to be solved via basic human means (what Putnam calls be a 'joiner' for instance).
I found myself reading this considering how easy misinformation, misrepresentation, and other sordid uses of the internet find their ways into our lives - AI, right now, seems to be at the forefront of these misdeeds. I agree: at best AI will look like some sort of pet and not a partner in life, and at worst, AI will continue to magnify the misbehavior that humans seem so easily to reflect online.