Just finished reading the book and I wouldn’t say the bleakness has no purpose. The bleakness contrasts those brief moments of un-bleakness (hope feels like too strong a word in this context). Those moments like drinking coke or finding shrivelled apples on the brink of starvation became so much more meaningful because of how bleak their situation is.
I lost what little faith I had left in our current arrangement of society and our capacity to cooperate within this context. My worst fears were realised as it became apparent just how many people, entire governments even, are more than willing to abandon the vulnerable to the capitalist machine. The fact that at one point people were trying to argue that death is actually not that bad and not being able to go to bars and cafes was actually the real injustice. I’d say that’s a pretty long term consequence for me personally.
I’m autistic so for me it was speech first. Didn’t really learn to read body language until my teenage years and it was something I had to actively force myself to learn. Still can’t really do it all that well though to be honest.
I dramatically strain for something that’s too high up for me to reach it. Pretend to try and weild the force to pull it towards me. And then wait until my very tall partner just comes along to grab it.
Psychotherapy is about building a working relationship. Transference is a big part of this relationship. I don’t feel like I’d be able to build the same kind of therapeutic relationship with an AI that I would with another human. That doesn’t mean AI can’t be a therapeutic tool. I can see how it could be beneficial with things like positive affirmations and disrupting negative thinking patterns. But this wouldn’t be a substitute for psychotherapy, just a tool for enhancing it.
If Argentina votes in the anarcho-capitalist guy who gets policy advice from his dogs (technically one dog that’s been cloned several times) then this will really take the cake for darkest timeline.
How much time have you got? I guess the biggest factor is that referendums are hard to pass in Australia, especially when the campaign becomes partisan. And this one was VERY partisan. But also Australia has a particular type of racist ignorance when it comes to our First Nations Peoples and our colonial history in general. We’re now currently the only settler colonial nation that has not recognised its First Nations Peoples in their constitution. Settler colonialism is not a competition, but if it was Australia kind of wins the gold. I say that as a white Australian.
One where the rich pay more tax then they currently do now. Also slap a carbon tax on these fuckers and use the cash to fund climate mitigation / adaptation.