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That is a good reminder.

My fear is the alternative reality that these tools could provide. Given the power and output of the tooling, I could see a future where the "normal" of a society is strategically changed.

For example, many younger generations aren't getting a license at 16. This is for a variety of reasons: you connect with friends online, malls cost money, less walkable spaces, less third places.

If I'm a company that makes money based off of subscription services to my tools, wouldn't it be in my best interest to influence each coming generation?

Making friends and interacting with people is hard, but with our tooling you can find or create the exact friend you want and need.

We can remember now that life is beautiful - but what's to stop from making people think that the life made by AI is most beautiful?

And yeah, I've heard this argument before with video games, escapism, etc. I'm talking more about how easy it is to escape now, and how easy it'd be to spread the idea that escapism is better than what is around you.



One thing to remember is that change never stops and we're certainly not in any perfect society right now where we'd want change to stop at. We've seen huge magnitudes of societal change over and over throughout history.

For the most part, the idea of change is rarely inherently bad (even though, IMO, it's natural to inherently resist it) -- and humans adapt quickly to the parts that have negative impacts.

Humans are one of, if not the most, resilient race on the planet. Younger generations not getting licenses, sticking to themselves more, escaping in different ways, etc are all "different" than what we're used to, but to that younger generation it's just a new normal for them.

One day they'll be posting on HN2, wondering whether the crazy technological or societal changes about to come out will mean the downfall of their children (or children's children), and the answer will still be the same: no, but what's "normal" for humankind will continue to change.


> Humans are one of, if not the most, resilient race on the planet. Younger generations not getting licenses, sticking to themselves more, escaping in different ways, etc are all "different" than what we're used to...

As long as they keep having unprotected sex with each other.

Otherwise, you know, humanity is kind of screwed.


Few people getting driving licences sounds ideal.

In Europe there's no need. Got a licence over two decades ago have never needed to drive. Shops in walking distance, public transport anywhere in the country, convenient deliveries, walkable and cyclable cities.

Meanwhile other places have no freedom from cars, locked into expensive car financing, unable to access basic amenities without a car, and motorists have normalised killing millions of people a year.


Way to miss the forest for the trees.

The licenses thing is a proxy for what we’re measuring, which is real life socialization.

You’ll see the same trends in Japan, where far fewer people drive than in America. I’d imagine you’d see them in Europe too.




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