I love developing resilience and strength: AI version, part 1
A recent article on artificial intelligence in the New Yorker wrote about how people who are suffering from loneliness are finding help from artificial intelligence. Some people can’t help loneliness, not out of character defect but circumstance. It gets the reader thinking about the elderly, for example, who outlive everyone they’ve been close to, or it describes as worse, if those who remain are senile.
Sorry to give away the ending but it suggests that for however it helps people who can’t escape, it will create dependence in far more. The article is A.I. Is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem: The discomfort of loneliness shapes us in ways we don’t recognize—and we may not like what we become without it. by academic psychologist Paul Bloom.
I wanted to comment on one view I think I may have once had, but that I’ve moved past based on hands-on practical experience. He takes for granted that TVs and Wi-Fi exist nearly everywhere, benefit us, and don’t hurt others. He wrote:
Loneliness could go the way of boredom. I’m old enough to remember when feeling bored was just a fact of life. Late at night, after the television stations signed off, you were on your own, unless you had a good book or a companion around. These days, boredom still visits—on planes without Wi-Fi; in long meetings—but it’s rare. Our phones are never far, and the arsenal of distractions has grown bottomless: games, podcasts, text threads, and the rest. This is, in some ways, an obvious improvement. After all, no one misses being bored. At the same time, boredom is a kind of internal alarm, letting us know that something in our environment—or perhaps in ourselves—has gone missing. Boredom prompts us to seek out new experiences, to learn, to invent, to build; curing boredom with games like Wordle is a bit like sating hunger with M&M’s.
I remember TV signals turning off at night after playing the national anthem, then showing a test screen or no signal and gray static. I think I would have considered watching TV a respite from boredom.
But I got rid of my TV something like a decade ago. Since my phone’s hot spot is my Wi-Fi and turn off the hot spot most of the time (I also put the phone on airplane mode at night and only take it back off at least one hour after waking up) I’m not connected to the internet most of the time.
(Parents seem to have some reflex to say they can’t turn off their phones for their kids’ safety, like parrots who don’t know what they’re saying, just making sounds. They haven’t tried. Parents who turn off their phones more report their children maturing faster, living more safe, secure, healthy lives. Parents who haven’t tried are simply stating beliefs based in dependence and fear more than hands-on practical experience, since they lack it.)
I’m less bored than ever. I’m more resilient to find things to do. I connect more with my community. I connect more with people around the world. I experience nature more.
He says “no one misses being bored,” but his examples of things that aren’t boring cause boredom. Watching TV doesn’t cure boredom. It distracts from it. What cures boredom is meaning, purpose, value, and acting on these things. TV detracts from them.
I don’t miss his distractions. Even though my time spent volunteering amounts to less per week than the average American spends per day on their screens, it gives me greater value, especially in the form of inner strength, resilience (especially from boredom), community, fun, gratitude, etc. I also find more entertainment.
Conclusion: AI will accelerate the forces increasing loneliness, boredom, and dependence.
AI will accelerate the forces increasing loneliness, boredom, and dependence.
Playing sports will improve anyone’s life more than just watching them. Learning to act, write, and direct will do so more than watching TV. Thinking and communicating will do so more than depending on AI.
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