The idea that we could create a world where 'a big part of the future of hobbies and entertainment' is people listening to meaningless words made up by machines that help them feel good about themselves sounds horrifying. How could anybody feel ok about that? What would it say about the society we've built?
It would say that society changes, and people who were not used to a new world get upset about it, as it has always been throughout the entire history of humanity.
We were used to having psychologists and doctors in person, now the most common form is to have it through apps, and the younger generation does not care, it's in fact more efficient to get a prescription that you like than to spend time going places and having in-person meetings. But older generation finds it hollowing out and horrifying.
You need to accept that society moves on, and it can look different from your perspective.
> the younger generation does not care, [...] more efficient to get a prescription that you like [through apps]
Absolutely
> people listening to meaningless words made up by machines that help them feel good about themselves sounds horrifying
Yes
> Every ... person ... craves authenticity, connection, and meaningful work.
Right
> to find a means of inserting a wire in your head that provides constant pleasant sensations.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1955-06866-001
> Factual, grounded information is just one take.
Absolutely
The problem is, who is moving “society on” and what is their agenda.
I don’t think it’s healthy to encourage an attitude to just accept all change without any sort of reflection or push back.
A looooot of assumptions here. We have yet to see any of these brave new ideas actually work.
Therapy has never been more available, yet mental health is through the basement.
I’m also not seeing any evidence that young people are the driving force behind turning the world to shit. Every Gen Z person I know craves authenticity, connection, and meaningful work. All of this is the opposite.
It's interesting how every time this argument is made, its about subjective experiences of 'craving'. If this was the objective reality, we would have a majority of Gen Z engaged in movements, social groups and other concepts that would help them fulfill their 'cravings'.
However, it seems to not be the case, it seems like they prefer to spend their free time to doomscroll, or sit at home, and engage more in parasocial relationships that perhaps can be more on their terms, on their timeframes, and with their opinions.
That’s one explanation. The other explanation is that young people feel powerless to change anything, and that they are hooked against their will on deliberately addictive ad delivery platforms.
The more alarming conclusion here happens to be backed by a lot of science, unfortunately, so it’s not easy to dismiss.
You could justify basically anything with that logic. Change isn't always about progress.
In this case, the user is deciding that they choose what progress is. I am saying, that people who use the tool and value the utility of it decide what is progress. If people listen to the podcast, or use doctors in the phone because it provides them any value, it will be a change and a perceived progress for them.
If the generated podcasts did not bring any value to the users, such as validation, or engagement, they would not use them, and there would be no change.
"But how does the collapse of truth and meaning in society affect you personally?"
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2565163-smugjak-but-how-does...
Your meaning and your truth, not necessarily other peoples who find their meaning and truth in other things.
Go to China, or Congo and you will find that the public might hold a different version of some truths than you do.
We had religions dominating the world order for thousands of years, which projected their versions of the truth onto their societies.
If we would extrapolate that to today and to your opinion, it would be that everyone in the middle ages actually had it all figured out, they knew that the religious texts about splitting oceans or the moon were fake, and were all just playing along with it for the social structure.
Maybe it just happens that the LLM-generated stuff is the next thing in this iteration.
> Your meaning and your truth, not necessarily other peoples who find their meaning and truth in other things.
The makers of those AI podcasts explicitly stated they were unconcerned with whether their content was factual, so this is not comparable to people that actually thought they were right. But if you're arguing that listeners of those podcasts will believe that made-up slop is truth, that that's the "their truth" you're talking about, then yes, that is exactly what I meant by "collapse of truth".