Comment by shaggie76 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by shaggie76 | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking how this article claims that people crave the authenticity of live music and that bullshit-generators will never be able to supply that. At first, I saw this as a reason for optimism, but then I got to thinking about evidence that people may not necessarily want authenticity after all.

Organic produce was the first metaphor the came to mind: it's probably more healthy for you even if it isn't as pretty, but many people aren't willing to pay a premium it and I suspect economics isn't often the reason. Is that a straw-man for live music? I don't know that it is because plenty of people are content to listen to recorded music -- sure, they might enjoy going to a live concert but they'll still listen to the radio on the drive to work.

Then I got to thinking about something more crass: while breast implants and other cosmetic body surgery may be as much for the benefit of the subject self-image I imagine there are plenty of people that find it very attractive despite what is often obviously fake.

So do we crave authenticity? I think I do but I'm not sure if that's a safe generalization to make.

Organic produce isn’t a good example because it’s a dodgy poorly defined concept and it’s not clear that it’s either better for you or better tasting.

The thing about art is this: art is a message from a human to another human.

If I want art I want it to be that. I don’t want a numerical average of all past messages, which is what LLMs and diffusion models create. I also don’t want randomness or gimmickry, which is why I dislike a lot of pretentious modern art.

I didn't want to hijack the thread too much but yeah, organic farming was not originally about better for the consumer. The origin of organic farming methods was about taking care of the land and the ecosystems in which farming happens. The end products happened to be healthier, in some cases, because of reduced usage of chemicals known to be harmful resulted in less of them in the product at retail.

Perhaps, but then the meaning of the word is in how it's used (something that, if more people truly understood, would cut the amount of dismissing LLMs as "bullshit machines" and "stochastic parrots" by half).

"Organic farming" may have initially been about sustainability, but the result correlated well enough with healthy food - and even more so with the naturalistic fallacy-fueled "healthy food" fad, that the latter application took over as it became a market niche. The niche being itself based more on a fallacy than reality is why "organic food" is such a bullshit fest it is - one product might be genuinely healthier, another is just worse and also ruins the land because it's sprayed with a nasty set of chemicals that are more "natural" than their strictly safer "modern" alternatives...

Marketing and greed do ruin everything they touch, yes.

Craving "authenticity" is somewhere very high up the hierarchy of needs, i.e. a luxury. That a lot of people do not care much for it is not a sign of moral failing but of having bigger fish to fry.

I think it'd fall somewhere close to a "social" need, i.e. right smack in the middle of Maslow's hierarchy.

Of course we do, but also realize that the threshold for "being authentic" is flimsy at best for many, and an Everest to climb for others. We want more skeptics in generalized society with their own personal Everest they require of their thought leaders. This variability of acceptance for integrity is a weakness in our civilization, strategically grown by attacking educational institutions, and currently being exploited to great success by Orwellian long players.

The travel and tourism industry is growing at around 4% YoY. So there is still a need (a growing need!) for "experiences" and "moments".

The "online bullshit" combined with no simple way towards ownership for younger generations are among the highest growth factors here in my opinion.

Still agreeing with your points, just wanted to add this context as there's likely a difference mentally between "social media" and "real world" authentic.

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