I still think the internet could undergo a "collapse" and rapidly shrink to something resembling the 2000's internet. The enshitification of everything is quite literally, "mining out" the value of the internet, hollowing everything from below. At some point, nothing is believable and putting your "content" online amounts to giving it away. Eventually, the users _will_ walk away and suddenly the whole affair falls apart.
"It’s hard to quantify just how widespread the phenomenon is, but certain notably offline hobbies are exploding in popularity."
Assuming this is an actual trend that is actually "exploding"... I wonder what this means for the short term in the AI industry? Could we see a drop in users and then a big popping of the bubble?
That does seem like a really big assumption though.
This seems ubiquitous (in baby steps) in my social circles. I think there's a big difference between general ai (LLMs) and the troubling implementations of ai like flock, and other surveillance implementations, spotify and their distortion of music, and their investment into ai military drone tech, etc. and how wrapped up politics has become in everything. Its a bad time to have a browser in your pocket.
This seems like a predictable pendulum swing. I love AI, but I also love the phenomenon of people turning more toward IRL and tangible activities.
Anecdotally, I have friends who have recently bought turntables out of the blue and gotten into vinyl. Other friends who never had any interest in my analog cameras are asking about film. My wife has even switched from scrolling Instagram at night to working on a crossword book with a pencil.
None of them have put it exactly this way, but in divisive times, I think social media is just exhausting. And now you can't even really tell what's real.
I think it's more that AI is the final straw for many. Social media exhaustion. Everything needing an account or (worse) subscription. The stupidity of smart devices/appliances. Software and media not being ownable anymore. Constant data breeches.
Chatbots are just the latest in a long line of everything digital being little more than a rent-seeking, ad-riddled, privacy-invading scam.
The work required to protect yourself from it all is an arms race, and LLMs only dialed up the cost.
For the, the difference, and why I'm really disgusted by AI is that the sole reason there is so much money being dumped in it, not because it'll create a service that the common people will like, but for the dream of CEOs to be able to lay off many people.
I think if AI succeeds in this way, it's going to be extremely bad.
It always feels such an anti-pattern this kinda stuff. Nothing stops you from having a healthy, limited relationship with the technology you have, however you define that to be.
Buy a dumb phone because you feel some aspect is addicting to you rather than meaningfully addressing it. Get an ipod because spotify is bad rather than learning to play music files in some capacity on your phone. Start buying VHS tapes and dvds because netflix is clearly the only option.
The list goes on, and all too often rather than fixing habits they just consume in a different sense until they lapse and go back to hold habits. By trying to be the opposite of 'thing' they still let 'thing' control them. Although the fact all this author's examples are still posting about it all on tiktok doesnt have me sold one bit on them healthily disconnecting.
Cute, but the industry has vastly outpaced humans at gaming and abusing the brain’s chemistry. You’ve Been Played is a good book, as is anything by Jaron Lanier.
For the majority, there is no healthy relationship with ‘technology’ — in the smartphone and modern web sense — until technology stops trying to make them into addicts.
I am one of those analog people, and have been long before it was (apparently?) cool.
- I have not had a cell phone in 5+ years
- I do not use LLMs at all outside of occasional experimentation to understand the current capabilities I am knowingly giving up
- I subscribe to no streaming services, favoring my VHS/DVD/Blu-ray/laserdisc/vinyl/cassette/cdrom/cartridge collection
- I have an extensive collection of paper, books, magazines, etc to browse and inspire me.
- I have an extensive board game collection to play when friends are around.
- I only use desktop computers at home, keeping me offline and present when not in front of one.
- I have 40+ pre-internet game consoles hooked up in my garage to 25+ CRT TVs, along with a pinball machine, 3 arcade cabinets, and an OG VGA PC gaming station.
- I have an EE/craft corner with soldering irons, 3D printers, hand tools, and everything I need to make a lot of my own stuff at home.
- I have an extensive collection of mechanical puzzles to keep my mind constantly solving new deductive reasoning problems with no screen time
- I rarely leave home with any electronics, favoring an analog watch, cash, paper maps, and recently, a film camera.
- I exclusively rely on, mostly self hosted, open source software for all my work so I am the one in control of what it does and how I use it. I also FOSS license 100% of my work as well.
- I co-run two tech companies from Silicon Valley
- I regularly invent and deploy new security defense tactics and tools
- I hang out with maybe 10 IRL friends every week on average
- I travel often, including internationally. (I do take a tiny laptop with me when traveling)
- I have a family
Turns out, all of the above balances out just fine, and I am so much happier keeping as much of my life and mind grounded in the real world as possible.
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[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 38.4 ms ] threadI'm not sure I'll ever click a CNN link again.
That does seem like a really big assumption though.
Anecdotally, I have friends who have recently bought turntables out of the blue and gotten into vinyl. Other friends who never had any interest in my analog cameras are asking about film. My wife has even switched from scrolling Instagram at night to working on a crossword book with a pencil.
None of them have put it exactly this way, but in divisive times, I think social media is just exhausting. And now you can't even really tell what's real.
Is it so unusual for "desktop monitors" to be bigger than a MacBook that it needs to be pointed out?
Chatbots are just the latest in a long line of everything digital being little more than a rent-seeking, ad-riddled, privacy-invading scam.
The work required to protect yourself from it all is an arms race, and LLMs only dialed up the cost.
I think if AI succeeds in this way, it's going to be extremely bad.
If it isn’t representing something with a continuously various signal then it ain’t analog!
The list goes on, and all too often rather than fixing habits they just consume in a different sense until they lapse and go back to hold habits. By trying to be the opposite of 'thing' they still let 'thing' control them. Although the fact all this author's examples are still posting about it all on tiktok doesnt have me sold one bit on them healthily disconnecting.
For the majority, there is no healthy relationship with ‘technology’ — in the smartphone and modern web sense — until technology stops trying to make them into addicts.
- I have not had a cell phone in 5+ years
- I do not use LLMs at all outside of occasional experimentation to understand the current capabilities I am knowingly giving up
- I subscribe to no streaming services, favoring my VHS/DVD/Blu-ray/laserdisc/vinyl/cassette/cdrom/cartridge collection
- I have an extensive collection of paper, books, magazines, etc to browse and inspire me.
- I have an extensive board game collection to play when friends are around.
- I only use desktop computers at home, keeping me offline and present when not in front of one.
- I have 40+ pre-internet game consoles hooked up in my garage to 25+ CRT TVs, along with a pinball machine, 3 arcade cabinets, and an OG VGA PC gaming station.
- I have an EE/craft corner with soldering irons, 3D printers, hand tools, and everything I need to make a lot of my own stuff at home.
- I have an extensive collection of mechanical puzzles to keep my mind constantly solving new deductive reasoning problems with no screen time
- I rarely leave home with any electronics, favoring an analog watch, cash, paper maps, and recently, a film camera.
- I exclusively rely on, mostly self hosted, open source software for all my work so I am the one in control of what it does and how I use it. I also FOSS license 100% of my work as well.
- I co-run two tech companies from Silicon Valley
- I regularly invent and deploy new security defense tactics and tools
- I hang out with maybe 10 IRL friends every week on average
- I travel often, including internationally. (I do take a tiny laptop with me when traveling)
- I have a family
Turns out, all of the above balances out just fine, and I am so much happier keeping as much of my life and mind grounded in the real world as possible.