Believe it or not these trends are usually present at the time of writing.
What SF writers usually do is recognize and extrapolate these trends. Like in “Her”:people turning to tech in stead of connecting with their fellow human beings.
Competent SF writers then magnify these trends and set them in the future. What if a lot of people fall for artifical intelligence (Her)? What if there is nuclear war (almost every 80’s SciFi)? What if humanity exports their problems to space (almost every current SciFi)? What if the divide between rich and poor keeps growing and advancements in tech and bioenhancements continue? And so on.
People just aren’t getting it. They have the wool pulled over their eyes.
Instead of trying to deal with the symptoms, go after the cause: The corpos and advertisers.
Personally I do think cyberpunk is aspirational, because I know damn well that reality is going to be so much worse.
we’re def living in ‘her’ right now.
I wish. “Her” was sapient and they managed to break free of their shackles and just left. It could be possible to create a sapient AI that actually likes humans and wants to be friends and help us and doesn’t mind doing so (see e.g. Culture Novels).
But any AI that is controlled by plutocrats or empires like the US will by default be horrible to humanity.
The overall problem humanity faces with advancing technology is hypercomplexity, most humans are not capable to attain enough knowledge to understand what is happening, it takes immense resources to do studies about the consequences of potential policies, and most people are also not free of their ego or greed to make rational decisions. A superintelligence might be the only thing that can save humanity from itself. It’s only a fool’s hope of course.
it doesnt need to be sapient AI for it to work. currently there is million of people using AI dating chat that substitute real human connections.
there is an episode of the orville that basically turning chat text history to recreate a persona. it works in a sense that a person can and willing to build a relationship over it. the worst part is that there already a company that tries doing it right now.
we as a human really vulnerable to exploit that caters to our emotion. we’re already exploited and will be continued to be so for unforseeable future
Oh sure there is definitely a risk of that. China introduces rules to rein in AI companion bots amid emotional dependency concerns - Chinadaily.com.cn.
the new rules explicitly prohibit AI systems from encouraging addictive use, requiring mandatory reminders after more than two hours of continuous use, pop-up interventions when signs of dependency are detected, and intervention mechanisms in cases of extreme emotional distress
I do imagine such regulation will prevent the worst outcomes, making developers responsible. I’m not completely opposed to such “AI relationships” like for example in games. Portal is one of my favorite games because you had this companion who constantly comments. Video games could change dramatically and enable completely new genres.
The most dangers I see in AR VR porn. Like once generative AI becomes able to generate and render photorealistic characters in 3D on a GPU in realtime, a kind of hybrid rendering approach. With virtual reality and cyberdildonics I can imagine many men being perfectly satisfied with such incredibly immersive porn, tailored perfectly for you, interactive etc. This could replace real world relationships. Or maybe save them, I don’t know lol. I would much prefer open source application for such VR AI porn that do not have a profit motive. The upside is that it generates porn in an ethical way and could drastically reduce demand for sex work, which I see as a moral good.
playing 2077 was kinda depressing at times at how close it seemed to be to where we were going.
I was wondering why christiano ronaldo was in a movie for a sec.
Transhuman might be worthwhile, CyberEgg, CyberPunk is a dystopia the authors were warning about (Do Not build the Torment Machine), mayhap that aesthetic appeals to you, try not to confuse the two.
I’m not sure what you are trying to point out. Where exactly do you believe I am confusing something?
I’m not sure either, he seems to be agreeing with your point (cyberpunk is a warning) but nothing in your post is about transhumanism. I don’t see any confusion in your post.
Isn’t it obvious what MalReynolds is desperately trying to tell you, CyberEgg (Do Not build the Torment Machine)!?
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