this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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Autism
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I've had a stressful week. My sleep study results came back as inconclusive, so the specialist wants me to undergo another one using a different machine. I tried to tell them that I don't think that's going to make a difference because the reason the study was inconclusive is because I could not sleep for the last third of the test. The pressure going through the mask was too high and made natural breathing difficult. Perhaps there are some people out there that can manually control their breathing while asleep, but I am not one of them. What I was hoping would be the best night's sleep that I've had in years ended up being the worst, so I am not looking forward to trying it all over again.
Elsewhere, I got into a heated discussion about AI in a community that I had thought would approach controversial topics with a more level discussion, but other users immediately resorted to insults, swearing, and at least one outright blocked me. I spent a lot of time trying to make each of my responses measured and level, and I repeatedly reassured other users that I understood their position and that I wasn't asking to change their feelings. My position was that AI has the potential to be one of the best tools humanity ever built, but currently it's being used for all the wrong reasons. Most other users were insistent that there's no nuance: all AI = bad. Because my premise did not 100% align with the community's gestalt, they strawman'd me as a stand-in for all of their frustrations and anger towards the entire AI industry. Only one other user approached the conversation substantively, and they explicitly avoided making the disagreement personal, but they exited once the other users began resorting to absolutism, misattribution, and personal attacks.
I want to find a place where people can discuss differences and disagreements and remain calm. I want to become better at having real dialectics. But most people seem more interested in winning arguments and filtering out perceived contaminants.
I’d strongly advise thoroughly reading this document to help understand the many, MANY problems with AI - problems that, in my opinion, effectively nullify any potential benefit, and yet are unlikely to be solved any time…ever, really.
This is exactly what I was talking about. I'm sure you mean well, but I resent that you think I don't understand the many, MANY problems with AI. LLMs and generative AI, as well as the datacenters that power them, are being utilized in irresponsible and dangerous ways, as your link affirms. The group that I was having the conversation seemed to think that I was supporting AI as it is currently, but that was not what I was saying. My premise was that AI has the potential to be one of our best tools for augmenting and amplifying human ability. Maybe it's because I'm a nerd raised on PBS and Star Trek, but I see so many other amazing ways that AI could be used. It has already greatly improved the efficacy and accuracy of medical and scientific research. It can do work in places prohibitively dangerous to humans. Regardless, they argued past me, assuming that I either didn't know or didn't care about the currently realities of AI.
To be frank: AI, as a tool, isn't the issue. It is the overly-competitive, capitalistic, nationalistic, and short-sighted nature of contemporary society that is the problem. The closest analogy would be nuclear power; it had the potential to be, at that time, the safest and cleanest energy source on the planet. However, humans took that potential and turned it into the worst weapons we've ever made. AI has that same potential, but if its current misuse and abuse continues, it will undermine our [ostensibly] free society to the point of collapse, and ruin the biosphere to the point of extinction. It's very clear that we, as a whole, are not yet able to make responsible decisions. If reasonable people do not take control and hit the brakes, place tight regulations and constraints around both the tool itself and the nations/corporations using it, then it will literally ruin the planet.