Ask HN: Do you feel we're swinging back to a life wholly in the physical world? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you feel we're swinging back to a life wholly in the physical world?

With the advent of AI and what seems to be the pervasive exhaustion and malnourishment of engagement in the digital world, it feels as if people are more than ever craving a connection with the physical – whether physical work, physical connection with others, physical experiences.

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I can only speak for myself and some of my friends and some neighbors but I have been moving back to brick-and-mortar businesses for a while now as have some in my circle. The only thing I semi-depend on that is not in the US is email and I keep backup servers ready to swing DNS should that provider go sideways. This has not been anything to do with AI or other recent events but rather watching the internet lean progressively harder into corporate capture for a few decades now and also watching governments go soft on businesses that operate too cavalier with sensitive data. My mistrust actually started to grow in the late 90's after fighting the department of defense on DNA gathering. It grew more when I worked for a wireless phone provider, then exponentially more when I worked in tech.

I can not trust businesses to not stab me in the back so now I almost exclusively do business with people I can see face to face. Even with brick and mortar I limit myself to small companies that are avoiding getting involved in social and political issues. I want my bankers to be grumpy no-BS goblins straight out of Gringotts.

I do still occasionally buy non critical things on Amazon that the local stores don't carry. That's bit me a few times as well and with time I will distance myself from Amazon. I've just been stocking up on some things locals don't carry in the event that global trade gets Wibbly Wobbly.

I think that's a pipe dream. It's like swinging back to chariots or candlelight. The world's fate is Japan! Probably a cyberpunk version

But I saw some figures that showed a DOUBLING of streaming platform viewership with COVID and a slow tapering off recently. Those COVID refugees might swing back, but I think the ultimate trend is full into cyberspace bb.

Yes, for some people, likely so. For those who can afford (whether financially or psychologically, or both) to push back against the tide of digitization, automation, etc. sure thing. I can imagine a "folkization" or a "tribalization" of certain demographics.

Historically this is nothing new, but we may see it at a greater scale than before.

Many people are, but don't get stuck in a false dichotomy. Physical and digital spaces can each be exhausting or nourishing depending on how the space is run and your personal needs. There's nothing wrong with demanding that both "worlds" should be healthy ones.

AI doesn't have much to do with it. It was Covid, and work from home, and video games, and even TV. Everything electronic let us disconnect more from the physical world.

So, craving? Yes. But actually doing? Not yet.

> malnourishment of engagement in the digital world

Beautifully put.

Regarding AI, the thought is that we will soon find ourselves in a digital world where it will be near-impossible to identify what is "real," further pushing us to engage physically.

Ah, I see. If I read some text (or even engage in a video chat!) I can't tell if you're human, but if I'm face-to-face, I know. (At least until robots become undetectably life-like...)

But I'm not sure that that's the tipping point. If I won't put down the video game, why would I put down the video chat with an AI? Sure, I may feel the desire, but do I feel it strongly enough to act on it?

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