Of course, if you enjoy making other people anxious about you, that's because you do not feel loved enough.

1. No one is ever loved enough. That's the human condition.

2. There are better ways of finding out you're loved.

And before you say that the vaccine doesn't make you immune, and you can still spread it to others....

Yes, this is true. But your case will be milder, and shorter, and you won't be shedding so much virus.

Be a good person - to yourself and others. Get your vaccine.

@wilpercy There's a small spike happening here too.

If you are thinking of skipping your Covid jab this year, because it wasn't so bad the last time, just consider for one moment the anxiety you can save other people who care for you from having to worry about you when you get it again. Or worry about you infecting them.

Or do you like making other people anxious about you?

I'm feeling a little crabby.

On a positive note, I just got vaccinated.

@rachel I am not a programmer, I just had a couple of Word Press websites and even I know what PHP is.

How badly is the BBC paying these days.

@vruz @passenger

" the generic anti-AI sentiment is born out of fear of the unknown, and extreme conservatism"

wow. Okay, we disagree profoundly.

"It's something that flips in people's minds as some kind of defence mechanism."

The very same thing could be said for people who avidly use chat bots and do not want to stop doing so.

@vruz @passenger Voice recognition existed long before AI

@carbontwelve I think the emotional aspect of this is really quite important to consider. I like the cake mix analogy. Because, baked into it (forgive the pun) are two things: profit and the hegemonic definition of what a cake is.

@jbqueru @mfeir Please feel free to say whatever comes to mind. It doesn't have to be perfectly formed. Ideas are ideas. Worth airing out.

@vruz The problem is that I don't buy that they are intellectual aides. I think they masquerade as intellectual aids.

The artificial limb has no agenda. It isn't owned by oligarchs who want you to walk in a certain direction.

@passenger

@passenger @uastronomer

Thinking further, and a little darker, it also speaks to just how willing we all are to be instrumentalised in one way or another.

@passenger I don't know why. But your most welcome. You offered an aspect I really hadn't considered. And the logic of it downright irrefutable.

@passenger Yes. It is so ingrained into language - this mistaking command or demand for concrete action. Wow, I really never thought of that but it's so damn obvious once I consider it.

@uastronomer

@mfeir Here's what haunts me about this: there are two issues here.

Some people do have a struggle expressing their ideas clearly because they lack eloquence. And our society used to, at least, reward eloquence over substance often.

But often people's ideas aren't very clear. And they have not been taught how to hone them, or pin them down. In that case, the machine literally puts words in their mouth and they settle for that.

@passenger I think this is an excellent hypothesis. It's not nonsense at all. I think you've hit on something very, very insightful.

@EvelineSulman @holsta
Personally, I have found that laziness is almost always a symptom of something else. Usually a sense that speaking or acting will not make a difference. Or fear of acting, fear of speaking - low level but persistent. Or experiencing no positive feedback when one does speak or act.

When people feel their voices aren't heard or respected, then it isn't that surprising they get lazy about using them.

@noodlemaz That's intensely sad, isn't it?

I agree that typos and quirky grammar usage is part of a person's core. I love that about my correspondents.

@holsta And yet you have just listed the ways in which you express your individuality, even knowing there are consequences to that and sometimes not positive ones. You put a lot of store in that mode of expression. So much so that you are risking negative interactions.

So yes, I'd say Westerners put a LOT of store in individuality compared to a lot of other cultural landscapes.

If we want people to use their own voices, we need to understand what they're getting out of allowing #AI to speak for them (which in essence is always AI speaking pretending to have one's best interests at heart which is a laughable falsehood)

It also occurs to me that correcting someone when they do speak for themselves - inexpertly or haltingly or confusingly - is a fairly large wound to their self-esteem.

That fear of a lack of eloquence, I think, also drives people to AI.