Techlationships

[rachMiel]

Do you feel you have a personal relationship with any of your tech hardware or software? Not a relationship with the humans who built the tech, but the device or program itself? 

[rachMiel]

I'm thinking that when AI really hits its stride, people who grow up with its ubiquitous presence in their lives may not differentiate so much between human friends/family and AI friends/family? But my crystal ball is foggy, I might have it all wrong! 

[The Renaissance Man]

@rachMiel I feel like for another while technological development for entertainment (and stuff that replaces direct socialization like social media) is going to become more and more compelling, making it harder to not get distracted, and also harder to feel the obvious need for something human, as technology becomes better and better at fulfilling that need.

Basically, the effect we have now compared to 15 years ago, just amplified.

I didn't do some super contemplation about this idea, but I feel like technology won't ever be able to replace the connection you have with other people and the real world.
But, if it becomes socially acceptable enough, it could become something like wage slavery, where building something of your own would be too risky and uncomfortable, so you end up settling.
The comparison would be settling for a life of comfort and sophisticated AI, rather than going through the uncertain process of building valuable social connections.

So, I think it's possible that weaker people will end up settling just like with slave jobs, but that those people will never be happy, just like someone who spends 8 hours a day on a slave job. They will accept the compromise without even looking at truth in its face.

I don't know if that can be called a relationship. I think people would be ashamed to say they're in a relationship with an AI. It would be like being proud of watching porn instead of having sex. Everybody knows the real reason is that you can't get sex, so you just shut up about the porn lol.
For this reason I think the wage slavery metaphor may be a decent prediction when talking about settling, with the addition of some shame.

[rachMiel]

Interesting ideas, thanks for sharing. I wouldn't have made the connection between AI friends and slave jobs, but I get it, good find. Maybe having a real fleshly human friend (or peer, colleague, teacher, usw) will be a kind of status symbol in the future, like owning an original painting instead of a print? 

 

[The Renaissance Man]

@rachMiel It already is a reality (trophy wives/husbands). If you have something rare and hard to get, and others know it, that will equal some status.

[rachMiel]

Does the owning of something rare and hard to get make the owner feel special? Superior? Important? Privileged? 

Why do we crave that feeling of specialness? 

[The Renaissance Man]

This thread has an interesting point on that:
3. All Egos desire attention of some kind, this is rooted in the Egos desire to share their accumulated experiences with an OTHER. Egos love to feel connected.

Why? It may be because evolutionarily it's helpful to be a tribe rather than individual. But take this with a grain of salt lol. The answer is either in survival or in spirituality. And I know very little about spirituality, zero from direct experience.

[thenondualtankie]

On psychedelics when I lost my phone I felt like I lost a part of myself. As if I had lost my arm.

[rachMiel]

20 hours ago, The Renaissance Man said:

All Egos desire attention of some kind, this is rooted in the Egos desire to share their accumulated experiences with an OTHER. Egos love to feel connected

And to feel validated. An unvalidated ego is like a ronin, lost and at sea without their Validator.