On one hand I’m glad that almost two thousand interactions on this post have only produced one Annoying Reply Guy™, on the other hand I’m irritated that there was still one.

So, piece of advice for AI proselytizers: the only opinion of mine you can hope to change is on whether YOU have enough basic intelligence to understand the words “don’t even try to talk me into thinking well of AI generators”.

@erkhyan if your talent can be replaced by a machine, easily and reliably (these are important criteria though) then you did not have a talent in the first place.

I'm all in for human excellence but what you just displayed is pure ignorance.

@nev @erkhyan

The Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Race-Adrian-Tchaikovsky-ebook/dp/B08QGJHS7N/

Set in the far flung future on another planet entirely, it features a princess (proper) a Grand Sorcerer (not even close, yet also.. close enough) and a "Demon" ravaging the countryside, threatening all the kingdom. One of my favorite authors.

@UnrealRonen @erkhyan Human descent is a braided tangle of various hominin clades.

If we hadn't had the uncanny valley "like us?" filter from a long way back, we wouldn't have that evolutionary history. Speciation events would have been much sharper.

@UnrealRonen @erkhyan Because some of them are capitalized Evil. We call it by many names because the ones who are good at it can act from different mental syndromes: psychopathology, narcissistic, etc.

And yet not all of them, of any syndrome, necessarily trigger my alarms.

By the time their eyes and face form into the Mask of Sanity (name of an early work on the subject) I get a very_bad vibe. These are the hard-core selfish who resist engaging with their own humanity, and refuse to acknowledge anyone else's.

My first big corporate job I nonetheless made waves. Because there was a salesman in the organization who kept hanging out in the lobby at the times it was my turn to sub for lunch at the receptionist desk.

I asked management to tell him not to do that anymore because his vibe drove me crazy. He just sat there and did paperwork but I was very uncomfortable. Fortunately he was told not to do this, and stopped. He subsequently left the company.

About two years later he was arrested and convicted for kidnapping and rape. So I do listen to my feelings. That was a good lesson in knowing what I felt, and acting on it.

It's especially crucial since we have a whole western society built on: "The emperor does too have clothes!"