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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   36044 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 27, 2025

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I'm not going to ban you or even put a warning note in your user log, because we just had the discussion about AI-generated content, and we haven't put it in the rules yet. But don't post AI content like this.

If you have something to say, write it in your own words. If you're too lazy to write the words yourself, do not have ChatGPT write them for you.

If you're too lazy to write the words yourself, do not have ChatGPT write them for you.

Or just use fewer words. That serves people like me who are too lazy to read walls of text that don't include a tl;dr or BLUF.

Noted!

However, I think your last sentence is silly and will be a relic in the near future.

  • -24

I have two thoughts.

Thought the first. If the AI content is supposed to be main contribution, the introduction up to and including "Here’s what it had to say" is unnecessary. Or if the first part was the main message you wanted to discuss (dislike of credit score) why bother including the LLM-written part?

Thought the second. Next time anyone tries to Turing test any forum, please please prompt it write succinctly and better. The cited argument is sloppy and rambling. Let's see one paragraph.

Finally, the U.S. credit score system embodies an element of collective responsibility that is reminiscent of communist ideologies. [Comment. 'reminiscent of' is a weak way to phrase a thesis.]

In many cases, an individual’s creditworthiness is affected not just by their actions but by external factors such as the financial stability of co-signers, the decisions of creditors, and even errors made by the credit bureaus themselves. [C: None of the listed factors have anything to do with collectivism. If your choice of co-signer for a loan and suffering the consequences is not use of your individual liberty, then what is not?]

Disputing inaccuracies in credit reports is often a bureaucratic and difficult process, reflecting the inefficiencies of centralized government planning. [C: Role of "government" here not argued for. Private American corporate and profit motive is capable coming up with bureaucratic and difficult processes to address end-user complaints if they find it profitable not handle them. Not handling "inaccuracies" is probably what makes the use of credit scores efficient.]

Additionally, the system’s reliance on predetermined metrics, rather than an individual’s full financial picture, enforces a uniform standard that does not account for personal circumstances. This mirrors the way communist states often treat workers as indistinct units within a planned economy, rather than as unique individuals with different needs and capabilities. [C: (1) You realize "lack of individuality" is kinda the Marxist critique of alienation? There is nothing communist about it. Time and motion studies for assembly line work were invented by the capitalists, in capitalism, for the capitalism. (2) Perhaps the predetermined metrics are mostly sufficient picture of individual's creditworthiness. For some reason banks run by managers interested in your individual needs and capabilities have been competed out by institutions that are not.]

In essence, while the U.S. credit system exists within a capitalist society, its structure and consequences exhibit traits that align with communist principles of control, social engineering, and collective financial assessment.

I don't think the argument was very good. Weakly supported claims and associations disjointedly related to each other. Would not like to subscribe to this newsletter.

The day that people just have ChatGPT write for them is the day that the written word will cease to have any value as a means of communication. Which we might live to see, so you're not wrong as far as that goes. But it's not something we should encourage.

Ai models cannot pick up up the subtle but important details that distinguish it from human writing, like internal consistency. Imagine in 2010 writing that you like in "X" . Unless you moved, it must be remembered that you still live there. So it must store all this information and take it into account in a contextual sense.

Maybe, in the future, AI content will be desirable. But, in that world, what purpose do you serve? There is no role for a human intermediary between me and the AI.

In that (perhaps quite likely) eventuality then forums and social media as a concept are dead. AIs talking to AIs while people nod and curate them basically destroys the platonic purpose of social media.

This is like if you brought photographs to a painting club and claimed that it expressed what you which you could paint better than you can paint it yourself. Can you see how that might satisfy an itch you personally have but is thoroughly uninteresting to the painters there to paint?

Yes the existence of photographs and digital tools have fundamentally transformed art and even tradition methods can’t really exist outside of conversation with them to some extent. Yes AI has changed the nature of written discourse.

But no it’s not a good reason to dump AI slop and say ‘discuss…’

I am sure that, now having been convinced you will join me and the rest of the rising chorus to return the Bare Links Repository to the Motte

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