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The big thing about the lockdowns for me this year, is that pre 2020,
life was offline and augmented by the internet.
Now life feels online, but with reality as a little bit of background here and there.
I hate this feeling.
I want real life to drown out "online living"
life was offline and augmented by the internet.
Now life feels online, but with reality as a little bit of background here and there.
I hate this feeling.
I want real life to drown out "online living"
In 2001, life was almost entirely "in real life" , you'd dial up a bit of internet, for a brief window into an online world and leave swiftly.
By 2010, our phones were with us, we lived a similar life to before, that effortlessly straddled the two domains.
By 2010, our phones were with us, we lived a similar life to before, that effortlessly straddled the two domains.
By 2017, our behaviors had shifted. Apps enveloped us with a sense of connection, algorithms hacked our brain chemistry to keep us locked inside them. The dreaded "loop" as you woke up.
By 2018 you'd walk around Paris simply to find backdrops for pictures. You'd bring out your phone in elevators, when you friend went to the loom whenever emptyness felt close, you used the phone as a barrier to block out feelings of boredom, or life.
By 2019, even very social friends of mine stopped doing things in the real world more.
Dating became a game you could never finish,scrolled news was infinite in all directions. Content was autoplayed and never chosen
Dating became a game you could never finish,scrolled news was infinite in all directions. Content was autoplayed and never chosen
But even in 2019 there was enough going on in the real world to draw you away, the momentum of etittiquette and obligation, the routine of the past, and muscle memory forced us to "Live"
Now 2020 came, it feels like the world is online. Windows are merely Zoom backgrounds. The momentum for living has gone, people seem happy to avoid commutes or shopping, forgetting that these things are what is it to be alive.
I worry some see real life now as smelly, dirty, inefficient, awkward, demanding.
I worry few want to think of the phone less as a barrier, and more as a portal to expand our minds and make new connections and learn more, to add, not replace life.
I worry few want to think of the phone less as a barrier, and more as a portal to expand our minds and make new connections and learn more, to add, not replace life.
But more than anything else, I think of this.....
To some extent in 2020, our brains felt constant artificial stimulatio.
By zoom calls injecting anxiety
Instagram injecting envy
The news injecting outrage
Almost directly into our eyes and brain https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/wireheading
To some extent in 2020, our brains felt constant artificial stimulatio.
By zoom calls injecting anxiety
Instagram injecting envy
The news injecting outrage
Almost directly into our eyes and brain https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/wireheading
And all because we never bothered to take algorithms seriously.
We forgot they were designed to trap us in.
To stoke every useful carnal emotion immediately.
To poke at the amygdala, to whip up dopamine, to mess around with endorphins, and just to make money.
We forgot they were designed to trap us in.
To stoke every useful carnal emotion immediately.
To poke at the amygdala, to whip up dopamine, to mess around with endorphins, and just to make money.
Maybe it was how we were meant to be.
Maybe most people don't want to really live.
Maybe most people seek safety,not real connection
But I'd love to see more people talking about this,to recognize the situation & to check to see if this is "OK"
and then perhaps to solve
Maybe most people don't want to really live.
Maybe most people seek safety,not real connection
But I'd love to see more people talking about this,to recognize the situation & to check to see if this is "OK"
and then perhaps to solve
