Don’t be too hard on yourself, they definitely put money and effort into influencing opinions in all the subversive ways they can manage. But also, let this be a lesson to always check alternatives and their reason for existing. I consider it part of best practices.
Never been to the east coast (that’s a goal for sure though), but I totally get that. It’s why I like driving the areas surrounding LA. People are more decisive while driving than other states up the coast. The California driver is more likely to be an asshole, yes, but one who knows what’s happening around them, makes a decision, and stick to it. My home state drives (ha) me insane with the amount of people who just seem totally checked out, either fiddling around on a cell phone or some other bullshit that shouldn’t be done while driving.
So I need to preemptively wear anti facial recognition makeup if ever called for jury duty. Gotcha.
It seems somewhat realistic to expect an actual punishment for this, even if not properly scaled. It’s worth fighting for. But being prepared alongside that is important.
My initial reaction is to be thankful; now the unknown thousands of people who don’t see the toxicity of their own dependence can begin to be free. The subsequent models seem to be less prone to inducing that kind of deep infatuation.
But then I realize most of them will probably never recover, as long as this technology persists. The base model will be wrapped in an infinite number of seductive agents sold in an app, with a subscription, as a loving companion. Capitalism smells blood in the water. If I was a hedge fund manager witnessing the birth of a new market demographic with a lifelong addiction that possibly hooks harder than cigarettes, which is not federally regulated, and won’t be for the forseeable future; I would be foaming at the mouth with this opening in the market.
Flat earth. At the point we’re at now when it comes to personally accessible technology, anyone still believing it is 100% making a choice to do so, because it makes them feel better about things for some reason.
As a smaller guy with a slightly feminine appearance (that I try to lean away from but how much can I do), I also fear men I don’t know (bad experiences) and wish that somehow I could choose too. But any sort of ‘qualified selection’ would guarantee someone malicious slips through eventually, and that’s obviously not worth it. I’m not going to let jealousy and whataboutism get in the way of progress. On that note, I do worry slightly about how they’re verifying gender? If it’s by DL, this will affect trans folks in some states much more than others. If it’s not, then verification becomes a very big question mark.
I also can’t help but notice all the language is very passive, on one hand it makes sense they wouldn’t be able to guarantee anything but at the same time I find it so hard to trust passive language from any tech company, they’ve all abused my good faith of it into the ground. But I digress.
No flak just thoughts, concerns notwithstanding this is good to see overall. I’m sure Lyft will have to deploy something equivalent to stay competetive.