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Comment by jcims | Hacker News Reader

I was born in 1973. My grandson was born in 2022. He won't know a world without 'AI' much like my kids didn't know a world without the Internet and I didn't know a world without refrigerators.

One thing I regret to say that I learned very late in my children's development was the value of boredom and difficult challenges. However I think I've successfully passed these lessons on to my kids as they raise their own. I have no idea what to say about 'AI' and the rapid reconfiguration of our relationship with the world that's going to happen as a result. All I can tell them is that we're in this together and we'll try to figure it out as we go.

Good luck everybody!

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My story of kids growing up in a post AI world:

There's a gag in Star Trek 4 where Scotty goes back in time, and tries talk to a computer.

The gag is funny because he is from the future where you talk to computers normally. When the computer doesn't respond, someone hands him the mouse, and he tries use it as a microphone.

I watched that scene with my kids recently (9 and 6).

They didn't get the gag. They thought Scotty was completely reasonable to try and talk to the computer.

It took a while to explain.

I was on a plane two weeks ago, and this girl - likely 12 was trying to get the screen in the seat to work by tapping it. Her Mom (likely in her 30s) started doing the same thing, both confused.

I gave it a beat and then reached over and pushed the button to pop out the remote control for them. It was a cute head smack moment for the Mom and the daughter didn’t know what to do with the remote for a solid few seconds.

This happens to me as well when I’m in a public bathroom without a sensor, and I wave my hands underneath obliviously for a few moments.

Life is funny

Somewhat off topic but I always groan when I sit down and see those dusty ass Boing remotes under the entertainment system. They are so janky and old from wear.

I would think your parents thought about television more than refrigerators. That's one technology that really set the world on a new trajectory. Imagine if Nixon won the presidency in 1960, if we didn't have real-time video of the Apollo landings, or if America stayed in Vietnam for another ten years.

Television and radio set the parameters for the "single-stream culture" that emerged in the 20th century. Mostly a result of the limited bandwidth of early broadcast technology, so everyone had to watch the same few channels.

Web 2.0 broke this into millions of creators. Generative AI produces everything on-demand, but again there is a small number of (polymorphic) models producing the content.

I feel so old now

You know a world without refrigerators? :)

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