It Could Happen Here

Alienation and AI feat. Andrew

9 snips
Aug 20, 2025
This discussion dives into the profound alienation shaped by artificial intelligence in modern society. It highlights how AI impacts education, diminishing engagement and personal connections among students. The reliance on chatbots for companionship raises concerns about genuine relationships and loneliness in a digital world. There's also a critical look at how AI influences creativity, leading to formulaic content and disconnection in work. Ultimately, the need for authentic human connections and community engagement emerges as a vital counter to this isolation.
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INSIGHT

Alienation Defined As Structural Experience

  • Alienation bundles separation from self, work, products, and community into a single social reality.
  • Andrew and James frame it as both lived experience and structural fact under capitalism.
ANECDOTE

Classroom Engagement Collapses

  • James describes teaching pre-1600 history and seeing AI transform student engagement over years.
  • He reports only two students out of a hundred now engage in a human way due to AI use.
INSIGHT

Cognitive Offloading And Its Costs

  • People have offloaded cognitive tasks to AI, making them reliant on it for daily decisions and creativity.
  • Andrew highlights environmental costs and the erosion of in-person social dynamics caused by this dependency.
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