add ai-connections post, add sonobe talk link
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Sun, 01 Jun 2025 19:15:11 +0200
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@@ -9,6 +9,17 @@ "metadescr": "arnaucube blog",
"metaimg": "img/logoArnauCube.png", "posts": [ { + "thumb": "ai-connections_thumb.md", + "md": "ai-connections.md", + "metadescr": "A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections.", + "metaimg": "img/posts/ai/two-worlds.jpg" + }, + { + "thumb": "sonobe-talk_thumb.md", + "metadescr": "[zkSummit12 talk] Sonobe, a modular folding schemes library", + "outsideArticle": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3FH9I8klDk" + }, + { "thumb": "protogalaxy_thumb.md", "md": "protogalaxy.md", "metadescr": "The idea of these notes is to provide some extra intuition and explainations on ProtoGalaxy's paper. ProtoGalaxy is a folding scheme which iterates on ideas from ProtoStar paper.",
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blogo-input/posts/ai-connections.md
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+# Human connections in the early days of AI +<span style="float:right;">*2025-06-03*</span> + +*Special thanks to [dhole](https://dhole.github.io) for review and suggestions.* + +### 1. Online world as an extension of physical world +IRL stands for 'in real life', used to describe the *offline* life of a person. +Many years ago, people started to notice that the online world is not +disconnected from the physical world, furthermore, it can be seen as an +extension of it. This was observed by the Invisible Committee: + +> *[...] if the hacker is ahead of his time it’s because he “didn’t think of this tool [the Internet] as a separate virtual world but as an extension of physical reality.”* +> <span style="float:right;">'To our friends' - by The Invisible Committee, 2014</span> +> <br> + +We've seen examples of this over the past couple of decades; with social +networks and their impact on professional politics and people's lives, but also +with cryptocurrencies, which on the early days most people considered them not +real money (not part of *reality*), while few hackers already saw them as a valid +form of currency. + +Another example was the [usage of "AFK"](https://youtu.be/KCAGb7oSwDs?t=72) by +the ThePirateBay founders, to refer to the world offline (instead of "IRL"): + +> *"We don't use the expression IRL, we say 'Away From Keyboard", AFK; we think +the internet is for real"* - Peter Sunde, 2009 + +### 2. HyperReality +The offline world being extended by the online world brings us a form of +[*hyperreality*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality). +The simplified idea is that on top of *the reality* we create the hyperreality, +where traits from reality are enhanced, exaggerated, to the point where it's not +the original reality but something more, still to be consumed as reality. + +The music analyst Jaime Altozano [links](https://youtu.be/ySa67e0jKNA?t=759) +this concept (hyperreality) together with the [supernormal +stimulus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus) to the widespread +usage of autotune and similar tools, not for robotic-voice effects that we +usually identify as 'autotune', but for any singer that thanks to autotune +sounds 'more natural' with better pitch, without notes out of place (both live +and on record). + +Another example are the instagram filters, which while allowing people to +'enhance' their pictures, they define a new hyperreality of (among others) +smooth skin and white teeth, which renders the physical world not good enough +compared to the online filtered and enhanced hyperreality; this affects back to +the physical world, with people wanting to emulate the hyperreality that they +get in the online world into the physical world, resulting, for example, in the +increase of plastic surgery interventions and into teeth whitening treatments. +<br>People want to see their instagram filters in their mirror. + +### 3. Moving from content production to content consumption +Before the era of AI-content-generation tools, we were already seeing the normal +users (non-socialmedia-influencers) reducing their amount of posts creation on +the various social networks. The main chunk of the population was already on a +timid trend of reducing active production of content towards a more consumerism +role of social networks, where the production of content is left mostly in the +hands of a reduced minority (influencers, 'content creators'). + +<div style="text-align: center;margin:20px;"> + <img src="img/posts/ai/idiocracy-couch.jpg" style="max-width:300px; + display:block; margin: 0 auto;" /> + <div style="font-style:italic; font-size:80%;">Optimized <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqQ6D0Bu-a8" target="_blank">couch from Idiocracy</a> movie. + </div> +</div> + +In the early days of social networks, people were sharing their daily life +experiences. As attention-gathering professionals (aka. influencers & marketing +professionals) started to proliferate, people reduced their rate of post +publishing, moving from a content-creation usage of social networks towards a +content-consumption kind of usage. + +Part of it might be due to just tiredness of the dynamics, in part as +consequence of the algorithms of the social networks being silently reshaped +towards exploiting human psychology for the respective app profit, or even due +cyber-maturing of the users; but it seems plausible that part of the reasons are +related to the attention-gathering professionals dominating those networks. + +<br> +On top of all those trends, this past year we've experienced an acceleration of +the enshittification of the major online social networks, the catalyst of it +being the usage of AI to generate content. + +### 4. aicceleration of the enshittification + +Social networks like reddit, since are mostly text based, were the first to be +hit by the first wave of AI-generated content. They suffered a substantial +[increase](https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/1jojjdj/anyone_else_noticed_many_aigenerated_text_posts/) +of the [AI bloat](https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1ap2fzi/reddit_slowly_being_taken_over_by_aigenerated/) +over [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/DeadInternetTheory/comments/1kauscy/spotted_on_reddit_ai_responding_to_an_aiwritten/) +past year, with 'real' users not being happy about it, usually flagging the +AI-generated posts, which become more common each day. In the long term, users +get fed up and migrate to other similar platforms with less AI bloat for the +moment. + +A potential conclusion is that, generally speaking, people don't feel eager to +spend (or waste) time to read AI-generated content that tries to appear as +human-generated. They want to read content from other real humans. As mentioned, +the result is that people get burned out from the platform. + +<br> +With the [refinement](https://youtu.be/zmlbAbWQCVY) of AI-generated video, +similar effects can happen on other social networks; it's now easier to generate +attention-gathering content for instagram, facebook, tiktok, etc. + +### 5. Two overlapping worlds + +Leaving aside the implications around political manipulation and social +disinformation, this can lead to two main outcomes with regards users relations +with the online social networks (which both can overlap at different ratios): + +The obvious one is a bit of a dystopian future where people get more addicted to +social networks to get the daily dopamine shots +([soma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(Brave_New_World)) style), and they +prefer that to the physical world experiences. + +I would like to be a bit more optimistic and imagine a trend of people getting +burned out by the AI-bloat and moving away from online social networks; valuing +more real-human connections (which can happen also online, but filtering out AI +content). +This might result in a deepening of physical world connections, together with a +revaluation of the physical world experiences (the famous *"touching grass"* +meme), as a counterweight to the fake AI-generated hyperreality of the online +social networks. + +<div style="text-align: center;margin:25px;"> +<img src="img/posts/ai/two-worlds.jpg" style="max-width:50%;" /> +</div> + +Online social networks could stop being *"the place where you get news from your +friends lifes"* as it was some years ago, to become another cog of the +machinery that provides passive entertainment (together with streaming services +such as youtube, netflix, etc.), while the real-social connections happen +offline, where AI can not easily inject content. + +<br> +It could be the case too, that the platforms react to the AI-bloat and adapt the +algorithms to avoid exhausting their users, therefore avoiding the mass exodus, +since it would affect their bussiness. In any case, I encourage you to +strengthen your bonds with your friends, family and communities :)
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blogo-input/posts/ai-connections_thumb.md
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+### Human connections in the early days of AI + +A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections. + +*2025-06-03*
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blogo-input/posts/sonobe-talk_thumb.md
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+### <span style="font-size:85%">[zkSummit12 talk]</span> Sonobe, a modular folding schemes library +(link to youtube video of the talk) + + +*2024-11-21*
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+<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + + <head> + <meta name="description" content="A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections." /> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title> Human connections in the early days of AI - arnaucube - blog</title> + <meta name="title" content=" Human connections in the early days of AI - arnaucube - blog"> + <meta name="description" content="A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections."> + + <meta property="og:title" content=" Human connections in the early days of AI - arnaucube - blog" /> + <meta property="og:description" content="A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections." /> + <meta property="og:url" content="https://arnaucube.com/blog/ai-connections.html" /> + <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> + <meta property="og:image" content="https://arnaucube.com/blog/img/posts/ai/two-worlds.jpg" /> + <meta name="twitter:title" content=" Human connections in the early days of AI - arnaucube - blog"> + <meta name="twitter:description" content="A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections."> + <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://arnaucube.com/blog/img/posts/ai/two-worlds.jpg"> + <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"> + <meta name="author" content="arnaucube"> + + <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="img/logoArnauCubeFavicon.png"> + + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + + <link href="css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css"> + + <!-- highlightjs --> + <!-- <link rel="stylesheet" href="js/highlightjs/atom-one-dark.css"> --> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="js/highlightjs/atom-one-light.css"> + <!-- <link rel="stylesheet" href="js/highlightjs/gruvbox-dark.css"> --> + <script src="js/highlightjs/highlight.pack.js"></script> + + <!-- katex --> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="js/katex/katex.min.css"> + </head> + + <body> + + <!-- o_gradient_background" --> + <nav id="mainNav" class="navbar navbar-default navbar-fixed-top" + style="height:50px;font-size:130%;"> + <div class="container"> + <div style="float:left;"> + <a href="/blog" style="color:#000;display:inline-block;">Blog index</a> + <span style="margin-right:20px; margin-left:20px;">|</span> + <a href="/blog/notes.html" style="font-size:90%;color:#000;display:inline-block;">other-notes</a> + </div> + <div style="float:right;"> + <a href="/" style="color:#000;display:inline-block;">arnaucube.com</a> + <div class="onoffswitch" style="margin:10px;display:inline-block;" title="change theme"> + <input onclick="switchTheme()" type="checkbox" name="onoffswitch" class="onoffswitch-checkbox" + id="themeSwitcher"> + <label class="onoffswitch-label" for="themeSwitcher"></label> + </div> + </div> + </div> + <img style="height:5px; width:100%; margin-top:8px;" src="img/gradient-line.jpg" /> + </nav> + + + + <div class="container" style="margin-top:40px;max-width:800px;"> + <h1>Human connections in the early days of AI</h1> + +<p><span style="float:right;"><em>2025-06-03</em></span></p> + +<p><em>Special thanks to <a href="https://dhole.github.io">dhole</a> for review and suggestions.</em></p> + +<h3>1. Online world as an extension of physical world</h3> + +<p>IRL stands for ‘in real life’, used to describe the <em>offline</em> life of a person. +Many years ago, people started to notice that the online world is not +disconnected from the physical world, furthermore, it can be seen as an +extension of it. This was observed by the Invisible Committee:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p><em>[…] if the hacker is ahead of his time it’s because he “didn’t think of this tool [the Internet] as a separate virtual world but as an extension of physical reality.”</em> +<span style="float:right;">‘To our friends’ - by The Invisible Committee, 2014</span> +<br></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>We’ve seen examples of this over the past couple of decades; with social +networks and their impact on professional politics and people’s lives, but also +with cryptocurrencies, which on the early days most people considered them not +real money (not part of <em>reality</em>), while few hackers already saw them as a valid +form of currency.</p> + +<p>Another example was the <a href="https://youtu.be/KCAGb7oSwDs?t=72">usage of “AFK”</a> by +the ThePirateBay founders, to refer to the world offline (instead of “IRL”):</p> + +<blockquote> +<p><em>“We don’t use the expression IRL, we say ‘Away From Keyboard”, AFK; we think +the internet is for real”</em> - Peter Sunde, 2009</p> +</blockquote> + +<h3>2. HyperReality</h3> + +<p>The offline world being extended by the online world brings us a form of +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality"><em>hyperreality</em></a>. +The simplified idea is that on top of <em>the reality</em> we create the hyperreality, +where traits from reality are enhanced, exaggerated, to the point where it’s not +the original reality but something more, still to be consumed as reality.</p> + +<p>The music analyst Jaime Altozano <a href="https://youtu.be/ySa67e0jKNA?t=759">links</a> +this concept (hyperreality) together with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus">supernormal +stimulus</a> to the widespread +usage of autotune and similar tools, not for robotic-voice effects that we +usually identify as ‘autotune’, but for any singer that thanks to autotune +sounds ‘more natural’ with better pitch, without notes out of place (both live +and on record).</p> + +<p>Another example are the instagram filters, which while allowing people to +‘enhance’ their pictures, they define a new hyperreality of (among others) +smooth skin and white teeth, which renders the physical world not good enough +compared to the online filtered and enhanced hyperreality; this affects back to +the physical world, with people wanting to emulate the hyperreality that they +get in the online world into the physical world, resulting, for example, in the +increase of plastic surgery interventions and into teeth whitening treatments. +<br>People want to see their instagram filters in their mirror.</p> + +<h3>3. Moving from content production to content consumption</h3> + +<p>Before the era of AI-content-generation tools, we were already seeing the normal +users (non-socialmedia-influencers) reducing their amount of posts creation on +the various social networks. The main chunk of the population was already on a +timid trend of reducing active production of content towards a more consumerism +role of social networks, where the production of content is left mostly in the +hands of a reduced minority (influencers, ‘content creators’).</p> + +<div style="text-align: center;margin:20px;"> + <img src="img/posts/ai/idiocracy-couch.jpg" style="max-width:300px; + display:block; margin: 0 auto;" /> + <div style="font-style:italic; font-size:80%;">Optimized <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqQ6D0Bu-a8" target="_blank">couch from Idiocracy</a> movie. + </div> +</div> + +<p>In the early days of social networks, people were sharing their daily life +experiences. As attention-gathering professionals (aka. influencers & marketing +professionals) started to proliferate, people reduced their rate of post +publishing, moving from a content-creation usage of social networks towards a +content-consumption kind of usage.</p> + +<p>Part of it might be due to just tiredness of the dynamics, in part as +consequence of the algorithms of the social networks being silently reshaped +towards exploiting human psychology for the respective app profit, or even due +cyber-maturing of the users; but it seems plausible that part of the reasons are +related to the attention-gathering professionals dominating those networks.</p> + +<p><br> +On top of all those trends, this past year we’ve experienced an acceleration of +the enshittification of the major online social networks, the catalyst of it +being the usage of AI to generate content.</p> + +<h3>4. aicceleration of the enshittification</h3> + +<p>Social networks like reddit, since are mostly text based, were the first to be +hit by the first wave of AI-generated content. They suffered a substantial +<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/1jojjdj/anyone_else_noticed_many_aigenerated_text_posts/">increase</a> +of the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1ap2fzi/reddit_slowly_being_taken_over_by_aigenerated/">AI bloat</a> +over <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DeadInternetTheory/comments/1kauscy/spotted_on_reddit_ai_responding_to_an_aiwritten/">this</a> +past year, with ‘real’ users not being happy about it, usually flagging the +AI-generated posts, which become more common each day. In the long term, users +get fed up and migrate to other similar platforms with less AI bloat for the +moment.</p> + +<p>A potential conclusion is that, generally speaking, people don’t feel eager to +spend (or waste) time to read AI-generated content that tries to appear as +human-generated. They want to read content from other real humans. As mentioned, +the result is that people get burned out from the platform.</p> + +<p><br> +With the <a href="https://youtu.be/zmlbAbWQCVY">refinement</a> of AI-generated video, +similar effects can happen on other social networks; it’s now easier to generate +attention-gathering content for instagram, facebook, tiktok, etc.</p> + +<h3>5. Two overlapping worlds</h3> + +<p>Leaving aside the implications around political manipulation and social +disinformation, this can lead to two main outcomes with regards users relations +with the online social networks (which both can overlap at different ratios):</p> + +<p>The obvious one is a bit of a dystopian future where people get more addicted to +social networks to get the daily dopamine shots +(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(Brave_New_World)">soma</a> style), and they +prefer that to the physical world experiences.</p> + +<p>I would like to be a bit more optimistic and imagine a trend of people getting +burned out by the AI-bloat and moving away from online social networks; valuing +more real-human connections (which can happen also online, but filtering out AI +content). +This might result in a deepening of physical world connections, together with a +revaluation of the physical world experiences (the famous <em>“touching grass”</em> +meme), as a counterweight to the fake AI-generated hyperreality of the online +social networks.</p> + +<div style="text-align: center;margin:25px;"> +<img src="img/posts/ai/two-worlds.jpg" style="max-width:50%;" /> +</div> + +<p>Online social networks could stop being <em>“the place where you get news from your +friends lifes”</em> as it was some years ago, to become another cog of the +machinery that provides passive entertainment (together with streaming services +such as youtube, netflix, etc.), while the real-social connections happen +offline, where AI can not easily inject content.</p> + +<p><br> +It could be the case too, that the platforms react to the AI-bloat and adapt the +algorithms to avoid exhausting their users, therefore avoiding the mass exodus, +since it would affect their bussiness. In any case, I encourage you to +strengthen your bonds with your friends, family and communities :)</p> + + </div> + + <footer style="text-align:center; margin-top:100px;margin-bottom:50px;"> + <div class="container"> + <br> + <a href="/blog">Go to main</a> + <br><br> + <div class="row"> + <ul class="list-inline"> + <li><a href="https://twitter.com/arnaucube" + style="color:gray;text-decoration:none;" + target="_blank">twitter.com/arnaucube</a> + </li> + <li><a href="https://github.com/arnaucube" + style="color:gray;text-decoration:none;" + target="_blank">github.com/arnaucube</a> + </li> + </ul> + </div> + <div class="row" style="display:inline-block;"> + Blog made with <a href="http://github.com/arnaucube/blogo/" + target="_blank" style="color: gray;text-decoration:none;">Blogo</a> + </div> + </div> + </footer> + + <script> + </script> + <script src="js/external-links.js"></script> + <script>hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();</script> + <script defer src="js/katex/katex.min.js"></script> + <script defer src="js/katex/auto-render.min.js"></script> + <script> + document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { + renderMathInElement(document.body, { + displayMode: false, + // customised options + // • auto-render specific keys, e.g.: + delimiters: [ + {left: '$$', right: '$$', display: true}, + {left: '$', right: '$', display: false}, + {left: "\\[", right: "\\]", display: true}, + {left: "\\(", right: "\\)", display: false}, + {left: "\\begin{equation}", right: "\\end{equation}", display: true} + ], + // • rendering keys, e.g.: + throwOnError : true + }); + }); + + /// + let theme = localStorage.getItem("theme"); + if ((theme === "light-theme")||(theme==null)) { + theme = "light-theme"; + document.getElementById("themeSwitcher").checked = false; + } else if (theme === "dark-theme") { + theme = "dark-theme"; + document.getElementById("themeSwitcher").checked = true; + } + document.body.className = theme; + localStorage.setItem("theme", theme); + + function switchTheme() { + theme = localStorage.getItem("theme"); + if (theme === "light-theme") { + theme = "dark-theme"; + document.getElementById("themeSwitcher").checked = true; + } else { + theme = "light-theme"; + document.getElementById("themeSwitcher").checked = false; + } + document.body.className = theme; + localStorage.setItem("theme", theme); + + console.log(theme); + } + </script> + <script> + function tagLinks(tagName) { + var tags = document.getElementsByTagName(tagName); + for (var i=0, hElem; hElem = tags[i]; i++) { + if (hElem.parentNode.className=="row postThumb") { + continue; + } + hElem.id = hElem.innerHTML.toLowerCase().replace(" ", "-"); + hElem.innerHTML = "<a style='text-decoration:none;color:black;' href='#"+hElem.id+"'>"+hElem.innerHTML+"</a>"; + } + } + tagLinks("h2"); + tagLinks("h3"); + tagLinks("h4"); + tagLinks("h5"); + </script> + <script src="js/mermaid.min.js"></script> + + + </body> +</html> +
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<div class="container" style="margin-top:40px;max-width:800px;"> - <a href='/blog/protogalaxy.html'><div class="row postThumb"> + <a href='/blog/ai-connections.html'><div class="row postThumb"> + <h3>Human connections in the early days of AI</h3> + +<p>A short note on aiccelerationism, hyperreality, and the recovery of human connections.</p> + +<p><em>2025-06-03</em></p> + +</div> + +</a><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3FH9I8klDk'><div class="row postThumb"> + <h3><span style="font-size:85%">[zkSummit12 talk]</span> Sonobe, a modular folding schemes library</h3> + +<p>(link to youtube video of the talk)</p> + +<p><em>2024-11-21</em></p> + +</div> + +</a><a href='/blog/protogalaxy.html'><div class="row postThumb"> <h3>Notes on ProtoGalaxy</h3> <p>The idea of these notes is to provide some extra intuition and explainations on ProtoGalaxy’s paper.