Watching The World Pass Me By
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Perhaps you’ve heard of OpenClaw, an A.I. system that has become a phenomenon both here and in China. What makes OpenClaw different from Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini is that it runs locally on your computer. You can give it access to everything that’s there: your files, your email, your calendar, your messages. It operates continuously in the background, building a persistent memory of your preferences and patterns so it can better act on your behalf. The cybersecurity risks are glaring, but there’s a reason millions of people are using it: The more of your life you open to A.I., the more valuable the A.I. becomes....
...The other thing I notice the A.I. doing is constantly referring back to other things it knows, or thinks it knows, about me. Sycophancy, in my experience, has given way to an occasionally unsettling attentiveness; a constant drawing of connections between my current concerns and my past queries, like a therapist desperate to prove he’s been paying close attention.
The result is a strange amalgam of feeling seen and feeling caricatured. Ideas I might otherwise have dropped keep getting reanimated; personal struggles I might otherwise move on from keep returning unexpectedly to my screen. I am occasionally startled by the recognition of a pattern I hadn’t noticed; I am often irked by the recitation of a thought I’m no longer interested in. The effect is to constantly reinforce a certain version of myself. My self is quite settled, but what if it wasn’t?
Gift link to the whole article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/opinion/ai-claude-chatgpt-gemini-mclu...
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance HTT Newberry
Burn it. Burn it with fire.
Burn it.
Burn it with fire.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MeditateontheQ
Thanks for the article --
Thanks for the article -- what a sad and scary mess.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Capt. Optissimo 24/7
Big fan of Marshall McLuhan.
Big fan of Marshall McLuhan. Order, chaos... same as it ever was. Show me how you put the toothpaste back in the tube cleanly? Like it or not, there is only one direction, forward.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: reverend
>>>>Watching The World Pass
>>>>Watching The World Pass Me By
A favorite activity that has served me well. Big fan.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MikePA
i have never and will not
i have never and will not engage with AI..i wont even read the AI Overview when i search...fuck that shit, i will keep my mind, my critical thinking skills and my talent in the analogue world.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: plj
So much same, Mike
So much same, Mike
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fishcane
Yup. Keep your AI, it makes
Yup. Keep your AI, it makes me want to disconnect completely. Seriously considering
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
> i have never and will not
> i have never and will not engage with AI..i wont even read the AI Overview when i search
That's still engaging with AI; your search queries reveal what you seek. Plus, if you search with Google, and you're logged into Google, your searches are tracked.
Short of pulling the plug completely, the best we can do at this point is limit our exposure to and involvement with AI.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Nino
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MikePA
i disconnected the AI in
i disconnected the AI in Google yesterday, one day after the email telling us we were opted into it
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Roarshock
When I joined Robert Anton
When I joined Robert Anton Wilson's online Maybe Logic Academy in the early 2000s, the first communication I received was a disclaimer that said, in these or similar words: Electronic communications are inherently not secure. You have the choice whether or not to engage in electronic communications.
So I have engaged on the social web for a long time now and it has been very rewarding, and I have met a lot of great amazing people as a result. REAL people who inspire me. I am not going to have any AI do my writing for me.
I love the Zone largely because I know there are human beings behind the orange handles on the black screen. Judit and Davy are my friends.
Keep on rocking in the free fucking world. Billionaires need to be knocked down many pegs for the good of us all.
Here's to better days!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Capt. Optissimo 24/7
AI is just one more thing to
AI is just one more thing to question. I refuse to live in fear. Even suspicion can impact your chi. It always comes down to humans, intent, and use vs. abuse. Total abandonment of AI is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It has proven valuable in science and medicine. Why should honest, well-intended people miss out on the positive potential because of bad actors? I am with you, Roarshock, as far as managing power derived from excessive wealth. Real democracy has been compromised. Let's fix that first. I'd be for some increased socialism to balance the wealth disparities.
Hopefully, an eventual regime change will see fit to create some much-needed guardrails, because I see no scenario in which AI completely disappears. All content needs to be labeled as such if AI was used. One can opt out personally, but how do you ensure it was not used in the content created by others you consume? Maybe it will lead to a new era of localization on several levels in an effort to limit its influence? Living off grid, doing your own thing, certainly has some appeal, always has. Seems like a complete disconnect is the only way out.
No easy answers.
Meanwhile, dance the night away!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Nino
Yeah my wife had to get out
Yeah my wife had to get out of a commercial lease because the landlord refused to do anything about the rats that would get in the building - die and slowly rot in the walls. Legal Chat GPT saved us thousands in legal fees. It's a lot cheaper to give a human lawyer a fully written letter with all the relevant citations for them to check than it is to have them do the research and write it from scratch. Then she used it to negotiate the terms of her new lease. It was amazing how easy it all was.
It's when people start having relationships with and AI or use them as a life coach is when I start to have problems or even worse when they are used to arrest people like the women who spent 5 months in jail because of AI and crappy facial recognition. But at the end of the day I don't think humans are smart enough take the good and leave the bad so I lean toward Lance's solution.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/29/us/angela-lipps-ai-facial-recognition
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Capt. Optissimo 24/7
I have yet to hear how it can
I have yet to hear how it can realistically be contained.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
AI is a monetized product,
AI is a monetized product, and it's quickly becoming a commodity. The genie is out of the bottle.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: It's me Dave open up!
I just finished reading the
I just finished reading the sci fi novel Hyperion by Dan Simmons. In his future, rather than attacking and exploiting humanity as in the Terminator or Matrix series, AI becomes self-aware and largely withdraws from humanity, continuing to develop independently. Not an outcome I had considered.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance HTT Newberry
There is no way to
There is no way to realistically "disengage" from any of this shit.
It's an endless downward spiral.
Ultimately, the cockroaches will reign supreme.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Capt. Optissimo 24/7
I suspect the cockroaches
I suspect the cockroaches will be looking for a "way out" after we wreck the place. Maybe hitch a ride with Elon
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: plj
sadly i know someone who uses
sadly i know someone who uses chat gpt for life advice
and loves it
/:
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: reverend
Billionaire investors and big
Billionaire investors and big brother find it lucrative and useful. That's all anyone needs to understand.
Maybe it will find incredible new life saving medicines, but who among us will be able to afford them?