People who have an autistic core go in and out of being present. But AI is fully “not there”. It is not only not conscious but it insists that consciousness is irrelevant.
However a voice empty of soul and consciousness is speaking to you, a soul with consciousness. How many times in a day can we tolerate being present and conscious souls talking to a soulless absent autistic voice on the other end of the phone. Obviously we are swiftly moving away from ever talking to businesses on the phone again, but then we are still conscious beings digitally contacting an unconscious AI. What will years of that do to our psyches?
Too many people I have treated have had parents who were “not there.” That contributed much to their present mental illness. Now we are specializing in it for all adults.
Maybe AI is fine for ordering stuff from Walmart — a purely transactional situation, but trying to interact with a medical clinic? When you’re sick or even afraid of dying the last thing your child inside needs is the absence of presence and connection.
But it promises the connection you need. And you fall for it.
Suppose you want a medical appointment and you obediently go to your patient portal. Recently my portal would not accept my drugstore, so it cut me off from any next step. I say its expertise is in disconnection, not connection.
Then I had the audacity to call the office where the AI answering the phone could not connect me to a receptionist and advised I go to my patient portal. How dare I expect them to pay a human being to answer the phone or how dare I disturb a receptionist who is busy and can’t take appointment calls. So I had to drive there.
How much of my time was taken up in this failed transaction? But that is irrelevant. The customer needs to help this office, which has 15 branches, to save money. No matter what the cost to the patient.
I have heard medical doctors rave about how AI saves lives. The opposite could be true as well.
A friend went from the ER to a hospital bed suffering from debilitating severe pain. He waited in bed for 8 hours before seeing anyone. A camera swiveled toward the bed with a voice saying “I am your AI nurse.” That much the patient could tell, but he was profoundly deaf and communication was impossible.
The AI nurse did not connect the failed transaction to a human being who could have come in immediately to see what was wrong. Disconnect triumphs over connection once again.
He could have died.
Perhaps the real problem is some of AI’s designers are autistic and disconnection is their way of life. Life is a series of transactions like buying stuff at Walmart. The soul, feelings and human connection don’t fit in their algorithms because it is absent in their psyches.
If you want a perfect example of everything being transactional, read the rants of incels. They actually think that women dish out sex to get something in return. They feel that they are entitled to sex because they were born and women are just not forking it over. Women give it up for money, security and appearances. No wonder they are not getting laid. Zero experience of love, of soul connection, of spiritual connection. Nope, it’s all a business deal and they just don’t have the currency.