Latest news with #InfiniteJest
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Zuckerberg saying AI will cure loneliness is like big tobacco suggesting cigarettes can treat cancer
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1996, on the publication of his novel Infinite Jest, the late writer David Foster Wallace voiced some ideas about technology that seem increasingly prescient with every year that passes. He began by talking about television, which was one of the major subjects of his work, representing as it did a nexus of many of its central themes: technology, addiction, pleasure, loneliness and the all-consuming presence of corporations in contemporary American life. Wallace, who struggled with substance abuse throughout his life, often spoke of television as his original addiction. (Infinite Jest, which itself seems to be increasing in relevance, partly centres around a piece of film, known as 'the Entertainment', that is so endlessly compelling that its viewers forego all human contact and bodily sustenance in order to never stop watching it. They eventually die of starvation and neglect.) READ MORE Television was powerfully seductive, he said, because it answered some basic human social needs – for company, for entertainment, for stimulation, for talk – without requiring anything of the viewer in return. There was none of the risk, none of the potential for unpleasantness or awkwardness or pain, inherent in human relationships. This was why it was so seductive, and also why it led, after long periods of watching, to feelings of profound emptiness. And then, unprompted, he began to talk about the internet, a technology which in 1996 was still in a prelapsarian state of dial-up innocence – no social media, no YouTube , no Google even – but with whose darker potentials Wallace had long been preoccupied. 'The technology,' he said, 'is just gonna get better and better. And it's gonna get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable, to be alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but want our money. Which is all right. In low doses, right? But if that's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die. In a meaningful way, you're going to die.' Alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but who want our money. It would be hard to identify a darker premonition of our own time or a more unsettlingly accurate one. The average American has fewer than three friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more, like 15 friends — Mark Zuckerberg I thought of Wallace last week, and of this remark in particular, when I heard Mark Zuckerberg , whose company Meta is investing tens of billions of US dollars in developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, speaking on a podcast about his vision for the near future. Having touched on the way people will use AI for internet search, and for information processing tasks, he addresses what seems likely to be the primary use for the technology in Meta's case, given the company's foundation in monetising human interactions and its recent movement toward more passive content-consumption. 'I think as the personalisation loop kicks in, and the AI gets to know you better and better, I think that will be really compelling,' he said. 'There's this stat that I always think is crazy, which is that the average American has fewer than three friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more, like 15 friends.' The reality, he said, is that people don't feel the kind of connection to the world that they would like, and they are more alone than they would like. The implication here – and the implication of all that investment in AI – is that this technology, with its personalisation loops and its improving ability to pass for a human intelligence, will answer that need. It barely needs to be pointed out here that Zuckerberg – who does not love you, and who wants your money – is as responsible as anyone on earth for the increased atomisation of technologically advanced western societies, for the swelling tide of loneliness and isolation he himself invokes. (I'm guessing that America is, if not exactly a special case, an outlier in terms of the friendship statistics he's talking about. We Irish – and Europeans more generally – are by no means immune to these trends, but I think it's fair to say we have a healthier social environment than work-obsessed Americans.) That Zuckerberg is now addressing himself to that problem and that the solution he is proposing is, in effect, chatbots – well, it's like a tobacco company addressing the problem of smoking-related illness and death by suggesting that people smoke more. Idea that a cure for these ills might be found in technology designed to replace the need for other humans is troubling, absurd Like almost everyone I know, I use Zuckerberg's products. I haven't used Facebook in years – has anyone? – but I do use Instagram . One aspect that's become unignorable about the experience of using Instagram in recent years is that though you probably joined it to see photos of your friends, and to interact with them, that's not really what it's for any more. Instagram, largely in response to the transformative success of TikTok , has become a place where you consume content, most importantly advertising. You can still interact with your friends there, of course, but you are almost certainly doing it less and less, as their posts – to the extent that your friends are even still posting – are overwhelmed by influencer content, personally targeted advertisements and random AI slop. It has become a place, in other words, where you are alone with images on a screen. It has become a more addictive, and generally more toxic, form of television. It has become 'the Entertainment'. It is inarguably true that the internet and social media have – along with all the other baleful and related effects like the erosion of social trust, the cultivation of conspiracy theories, the growth of political extremism – made people more lonely and isolated. The idea that a cure for these ills might be found in an even more sophisticated technology, one designed to replace the need for other humans, is as troubling as it is absurd. Machine lovers, machine therapists, machine friends. The cure is the disease itself. It's a solution that can only lead to a deeper emptiness, and to a lonelier and less human world.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
This Week in Mets: Good vibes carrying over in solid start
'You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.' — 'Infinite Jest,' David Foster Wallace Six months later, the vibes feel the same at Citi Field. Although momentum in baseball should be as fickle as tomorrow's starting pitcher, the New York Mets have managed to maintain it with their fan base through a difficult playoff loss, through the winter and into a new regular season, as seen in a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays. Advertisement Sunday's 2-1 victory polished off a sweep that revealed the length of New York's contributor list. The heroes included Hayden Senger, whose leadoff walk in the third sparked New York's two-run inning, and Max Kranick, who got the biggest out of the game with the bases loaded in the fifth. (Kranick replaced David Peterson, who had pitched well before a sudden feeling of nausea struck him in the inning.) Jesse Winker and Huascar Brazobán came through on Saturday. Friday was more of what you'd expect, the offensive attack spearheaded by Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo. They did it in front of the most fans Citi Field has ever drawn through three games: 121,771. That's a stark contrast to last year, when the team set new lows for attendance at the ballpark. The opening series attendance this weekend was more than 25,000 clear of last year. 'The fans really showed up,' said Nimmo, who exhorted the fans to come out more late last season during a pennant race. 'I'm so happy to see that, and I want to see it continue throughout this season. We fed off their enthusiasm.' 'It lived up to the hype,' said reliever A.J. Minter, who visited often with Atlanta earlier in his career. 'It's good to be on this side of the fans now.' The Mets have rewarded that faith early. Throughout this encouraging 6-3 start to the season, the Mets have been carried less by their lineup than by the depth of their bullpen. It tossed 4 1/3 scoreless frames on Sunday, from Kranick through Reed Garrett and AJ Minter — looking his sharpest yet — to Edwin Díaz. That's pretty much been par for the course. The pen averages just under four innings per game with a sparkling 1.29 ERA. 'The numbers speak for themselves,' Nimmo said. 'They've been a huge reason for our success early.' Is that sustainable? Of course not. Is it banked in the standings in a division and a playoff race that may once again come down to the final day? You bet. Advertisement 'At some point, starters will go deeper into games,' manager Carlos Mendoza said. Of course, the last few years have shown the Mets both the benefits and limitations of a good start. A 35-17 start in 2022 wasn't enough to put away Atlanta in the division race. A 22-33 start last season didn't bury them themselves. This is nine games. The Pirates were 7-2 at this point last season. 'It's a long year, man,' Mendoza said. 'We've got to stay the course and stick to our process.' The Mets swept the Blue Jays and have won five of six. They're 6-3. The Marlins were rained out Sunday in Atlanta, where they had split the first two games. Miami is 5-4. The Athletics could not finish off a sweep of the Rockies at Coors Field, dropping the finale Sunday. The A's host the Padres for three games through Wednesday before welcoming the Mets. Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas is 4-6. v. Miami RHP Kodai Senga (0-1, 3.60 ERA) v. TBD* RHP Clay Holmes (0-1, 2.89) v. RHP Connor Gillispie (0-1, 3.60) RHP Tylor Megill (2-0, 0.87) v. RHP Max Meyer (0-1, 3.09) at Sacramento RHP Griffin Canning (0-1, 2.79) v. LHP J.P. Sears (1-1, 3.46) LHP David Peterson (1-0, 2.53) v. RHP Joey Estes RHP Kodai Senga v. RHP Luis Severino (0-1, 3.75) * Sandy Alcántara is heading to the paternity list, so Miami will use a spot starter on Monday. Perhaps you wondered, like I did, why a Mets team that has emphasized playing more of its Saturday games in the afternoon played a Saturday night game on the first weekend of April (when it was 45 degrees outside). Well, once the Mets selected to play their home opener on Friday rather than Thursday, opting to give themselves a day off before the series rather than within it, they needed protection in case that game was rained out (as it had been each of the last two seasons). Had Friday been rained out, the Mets would have scheduled a split day-night doubleheader for Saturday. That way, everyone who paid extra for the home opener would still go to the first home game that day, and everyone who bought tickets to the Saturday game wouldn't have had to change plans. Advertisement Red = 60-day IL Orange = 15-day IL Blue = 10-day IL Triple-A: Syracuse at Lehigh Valley (Philadelphia) Double-A: Binghamton v. Hartford (Colorado) High-A: Brooklyn v. Hudson Valley (New York, AL) Low-A: St. Lucie at Lakeland (Detroit) When I sat down to read 'Infinite Jest' a second time, I told myself that this time, I'd really get into the nitty-gritty of the plot. I wanted to know what actually happened in this book rather than just enjoying everything about the writing. And then I was like 200 pages in and very confused again, so I decided to just enjoy everything about the writing. With 1 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday, Max Kranick extended his season-opening scoreless streak to seven innings, one out behind teammate Huascar Brazobán. The franchise record for scoreless innings to begin a season is 21, and it's held by three pitchers. Two are starters Jerry Koosman (1968) and Tom Seaver (1972). Who is the reliever, who accomplished the feat for a division winner? (I'll reply to the correct answer in the comments.) (Top photo of Juan Soto: Al Bello / Getty Images)
