Read Mayfly by Peter Watts, one of my favorite hard sf short stories that deals with a child being raised in a computer, sorta.
Also, here's the article in question in question. It's written as a sort of joke about the supposedly serious article on the same topic in daily mail which I haven't read yet.
nothing to do with the metaverse is a cool idea
also companion AI is just an intensely desolate and depressing field the more you know about which the sadder it is
nothing to do with the metaverse is a cool idea
Metaverse here is just a current buzzword for virtual reality and, I'm sorry, no amount of Zuckerberg shenanigans will convince me that the concept of virtual reality isn't cool as shit.
companion AI is just an intensely desolate and depressing field
A couple of years ago I've read an article about lonely American seniors being kept company by virtual pets piloted by underpaid workers in Philippines and this was no joke the bleakest thing I've read in a decade.
I’m sorry, no amount of Zuckerberg shenanigans will convince me that the concept of virtual reality isn’t cool as shit.
You, an idealistic comrade: "This is so cool that not even capitalism can ruin it!"
Capitalism, ruiner of everything in existence to date: "You're on."
A couple of years ago I’ve read an article about lonely American seniors being kept company by virtual pets piloted by underpaid workers in Philippines and this was no joke the bleakest thing I’ve read in a decade.
that's less bleak than usual as there is at least a genuine person that they're interacting with albeit in a perverse and bizarre manner
I honestly don't how it usually is, but there is something incredibly fucked about a lonely old person desperate for even a tiny bit of affection, treating a foreign worker who's too overworked and underpaid to not resent their job as their beloved virtual cat or whatever.
yeah that is a pretty fucked up situation but it usually is a machine that has done enough statistical analysis of speech to respond the way people expect so it's people forming an emotional connection to the echo of their own voice
Oh god, virtual child abuse is going to be a fucking thing in my lifetime isn't it?
As the article points out the cool thing about a virtual child is that it doesn't have to grow up.
Marriage is when two people join together to invent a guy and get mad at it.
there isn't going to be a "metaverse" per se. the things that it's presented as (some kind of "digital world" that replaces the real one) have existed in various forms since the 80s with little reason for a normal person to participate. if it's anything, the metaverse is new branding on existing trends, specifically the further enclosure and marketization of anything public or free, pacification of the masses with increasingly lower quality entertainment and treats, and a politics totally subsumed by the spectacle. maybe some people will deal by playing ugly monkey second life, but i'm sure most will find other ways of staving off mental illness.
As I've pointed out elsewhere in this thread metaverse in this headline is just a hot new buzzword for virtual reality. But if you're curious why facebook metaverse looks so bad, it's because it's designed to run on Facebook's $250 Quest 2 headset which is powered by what is basically smartphone hardware.
There are several episodes dedicated solely to the two main characters
really boring episodes spoiler
playing virtual house together in their VR entrapment where they stop bothering to progress through the game, adopt an AI as their child and play happy family together.
i'm neither a nazi nor on twitter but this is stupid as fuck and we have to kill venture capitalists before it's too late
I'm recommending the latest Digivices, the Digimon Vital Bracelet. It's a cheap smartwatch combined with one of those Tamagotchi-esque digivice toys that you can raise and battle Digimon with Pokemon Home-style via your phone.
Just an aside, but Petter Watts is my favorite Sci Fi author, and he makes all his work available for free on his website!
Everyone should read Blindsight. It’s Lovecraftian hard sci fi, it takes the unknowable impossible creatures of cosmic horror, makes them real, dissects them before your eyes, and in the process manages to make them more terrifying.
Blindsight is really really good but also made me super bummed out. Xenophobic scifi like Blindsight and the Three-Body Problem series are sooo pessimistic, but maybe not inaccurate when it comes to interspecies diplomacy :(
The
tamagotchiyou have raised for 25 years and is currently going through grad school is about to die because the servers are going offline, please fill this form to download yourtamagotchi'sson's data before it is too late.hmmmmm.... uhh....
This is gonna wind up being a child abuse simulator isn't it?
Waking up in a cold sweat after the first 45 minutes of sleep ive been able to get for 2 days. i grab my oculus from where it sits in the crib next to my bed. i put it on in a panic. Oh thank god, my baby who ive modded to look like Shrek is still breathing
