Imagine a herd of AI agents, indistinguishable from real human, are to interact with you and the content you create. Are you ok with it? Would you even care that they are not real people? Or maybe you'd even prefer them sometimes?
But wouldn’t you want to know that something you made affected actual people in meaningful ways? I’d hate to have LLM bots drown out real people with actual opinions and experiences, and never know if I was actually reaching anyone.
I’ve heard similar equivalencies in the past and I don’t know what the root cause of someone feeling this way is? Apathy?
I’ve heard coworkers argue that enjoyment from video games is equally valuable to enjoying time with your family or enjoying a walk. I’m a lifelong gamer and it’s still heartbreaking to hear people say the grass outside is no more valuable to them than what’s going on in a digital world.
> I’m a lifelong gamer and it’s still heartbreaking to hear people say the grass outside is no more valuable to them than what’s going on in a digital world.
Digital is just another part of the human experience, albeit much further removed from the surviving-in-the-savannah experience most of our ancestors evolved in.
For folks with significant limitations, screen-based experiences can be a huge enhancement and even a lifeline. A balanced life is such a subjective concept. IME it's easy and natural to judge, but not always fair or productive.
By all means, let's encourage people to try a wide variety of experiences in all available mediums. Yet without scolding or pity when they make choices we don't relate to.
We all have a different experience of reality, even if differences are usually small. So the digital realm is an extension of reality. They aren't mutually exclusive. Ask any kid whose been cyber bullied.
Drugs alter ones perspective, so IMO a case can be made that they too are legitimate part of life. Dreaming too.
What people choose to do with the short time they exist is up to them. I hope my kids have a happy and fulfilling life, ideally giving as much as they take and leaving the world better than they found it. Yet it's not my place to dictate what sources of fulfillment are more or less legit, or even what 'better' looks like. (Of course I still teach them some fundamentals, to think critically, to make informed choices, and to try many things.)
What I mean is if you can’t tell then it doesn’t matter because as far as you’re concerned you could believe you’re talking to an AI or believe you’re talking to a human and be right either way.
It’s kind of the like the “brain in the vat” theory. Whether your brain is in a vat or not doesn’t really matter to you. If it is or if it isn’t is meaningless to you because there’s no difference as far your existence is concerned.
Because that's where we are headed.