AI hellholes
it is what it sounds like.
AI hellholes
This is what a frictionless world looks like. Everything accelerates, until you forget what it means to try.
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
This is all economically quite weird. The credential still costs money and at least now, still signals value. It still unlocks jobs, internships, visas, and salaries (although the wage premium has eroded over time). But the effort that used to underwrite that value has vanished.
This is a misalignment problem. The economic signal (the diploma)... See more
This is a misalignment problem. The economic signal (the diploma)... See more
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
the value of a college degree still exists despite that the work underlying that value is no longer there
When Mark Zuckerberg's Meta builds frictionless social interfaces, that cognitive smoothness is subsidized by somewhere, somehow, right?
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
subsidized by the earth, by the climate, by the communities poisoned by data centers
AI is the newest terrain in a decades-long race to eliminate all forms of cognitive resistance
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
I think what we're witnessing isn't just an extension of the attention economy but something new - the simulation economy. It's not just about keeping you glued to the screen anymore. It's about convincing you that any sort of real-world effort is unnecessary, that friction itself is obsolete
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
on the need for digital literacy and re-skilling our understanding of how computers (and AI) work
“AI mirrors you. You're being sold back to yourself. It will only increase hyper-individualism and isolation.”
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
especially relevant re: Zuckerberg’s Meta AI companions that he is positioning as filling the gap between demand and supply of friendships.
one student said college now feels like “how well I can use ChatGPT.” Others describe writing essays as a coordination problem: get the prompt, feed it to the bot, skim the output, add some filler, hit submit. No thinking required, just interface management.
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
thinking, analyzing information —> coordination of information. moving bits around
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