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I understand that this is kind of beside the point, but it seems like a bad thing to compare inventions to haunted artifacts that mind controlled their users in
by Tcepsa 2mo ago
I understand that this is kind of beside the point, but it seems like a bad thing to compare inventions to haunted artifacts that mind controlled their users into betraying their friends to a powerfully evil being. (Though since it is being powered by GenAI, which has also driven people to do bad things, perhaps it is an apt comparison.)
- avaer 2mo agoWhy would that comparison be bad if it's accurate? Also, "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Both can be made good and evil.
- p-e-w 2mo agoIt’s not accurate, it’s absurd hyperbole no different from the kind the people who peddle it have arrogantly ridiculed their entire lives. A mentally unstable person being “made” to do something by a chatbot is no different from other mentally unstable people doing bad things because they saw them in a TV show.
- McGlockenshire 2mo agoNo, actually, an interactive textual conversation is a significantly different thing than a television show.
- lwansbrough 2mo agoYou don't think there's a difference between passive entertainment and a conversation with a sycophantic enabler?
- RossBencina 2mo agoYou think mental instability is a necessary prerequisite for covert persuasion?
- febusravenga 2mo agoNo but those have less or no guards against it - so _we the society_ ;) stand and try guard them. Rest of us have some chance to stand against persuasion.
- fatata123 2mo ago[dead]
- melagonster 2mo agoI hope people at least know that they should not create Skynet.
- adastra22 2mo agoWe are literally creating won’t right now.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- latexr 2mo agoPerhaps I’m misunderstanding what you’re asking, but your parent comment isn’t saying the comparison is bad in the sense of being inaccurate, but bad in the sense of being ill-advised.
- trhway 2mo agoOnce/if we lose understanding of the tech it will become magic/haunted artifacts.
- boothby 2mo ago> it seems like a bad thing to compare inventions to haunted artifacts that mind controlled their users into betraying their friends to a powerfully evil being. It's worked pretty well for Palantir?
- devmor 2mo agoYou hit on the point at the end… It’s not a bad comparison, it’s an apt one.
- fjdjshsh 2mo agoI thought that was part of the appeal of this. There's something spooky and ironic about it.
- CarVac 2mo agoSci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale. Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.
- mikestorrent 2mo agoAt least we're giving out free verification cans
- Chaosvex 2mo agoDrink your Mountain Dew verification can to continue.
- rob74 2mo agoWasn't that Kool-Aid? (yeah, I know that's not sold in cans, and actually it was Flavor-Aid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid#Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid#Backgrou...)
- archagon 2mo agoFor more info, see my blog post titled "Get in the Torment Nexus or get left behind."
- anigbrowl 2mo agoThat explains why the video was posted on X
- annzabelle 2mo agoAt long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel "Don't Create The Torment Nexus." https://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538?lang=en https://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538?lang=e...
- FeepingCreature 2mo agoOf course, that tweet was talking about the Metaverse. So really it should be classic sci-fi novel "Neal Stephenson Invents A Ton Of Cool Things, But The Torment Nexus May Be The Coolest." Like, I love the Torment Nexus trope, but it's somehow gotten coined with the worst first example imaginable, and the only reason it works as a meme is that nobody realizes this. (The problem with the Zuckerverse is exactly that it's not the Metaverse from Snow Crash. The whole point of the Metaverse is that it's built on open protocols! It's literally got a geometric representation of IPv4 in it!)
- dd8601fn 2mo agoYup. I absolutely want the metaverse. Just not a cartoon Facebook one.
- archagon 2mo agoI had to do a double take. They’re framing this comparison as a positive thing?!? (On second thought, the LLM probably made up this analogy on its own, which... in a way, is even worse.)
- brookst 2mo agoDefinitely concerning when things are made up
- latexr 2mo agoThere’s a long tradition in media of people completely missing the obvious and taking the opposite lesson from what was intended. One example is finance bros idolising Patrick Bateman (American Psycho). https://nypost.com/2025/04/16/entertainment/american-psycho-director-slams-wall-street-bros-for-idolizing-patrick-bateman/ https://nypost.com/2025/04/16/entertainment/american-psycho-...