[johnea]

I think this article doesn't use a very good definition of "physical reality".

Like most writing along these lines, it conflates physical reality, with the human conscious perception of physical reality.

This has always been a problem of human psychology, but it seems to be getting worse.

Typographical note: Grey text on a black background is really bad for reading.

[iamnothere]

> This has always been a problem of human psychology, but it seems to be getting worse.

It’s been getting worse since the invention of the TV. Each subsequent advance has pushed us further from base reality into a mediated simulacrum. With the dawn of LLMs, people finally seem to be losing their grip on what it means for something to be “real”.

I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen people deny evidence for something, even evidence that’s right in front of them, just because an AI “said so”.

I can’t totally blame AI, though. People were already losing their grip before Covid. I can’t tell you how many adults I knew who suddenly decided they were witches, or otherkin, or superhero vigilantes.

[johnea]

I'm not sure why this comment is grey'd out 8-/

I totally agree with it, and upvoted it.

One thing I would add: TV was certainly a major contributor to loss of reality for many people, but the internet was far far worse.

Especially with the advent of the mobile, always networked, hand-held computer.

The interactive nature of the internet vs TV, and especially the constant availability of a hand-held mobile computer vs a fixed location TV.

Data also supports your statement that this phenomenon predates the plague (covid), and measurable educational decline started around 2013.

Due to this I've started saying, and this may be a little extreme, but I think still correct:

Apple caused the collapse of US educational outcomes, with the release of the iPhone.

Goggle, seeing what a giant increase this was yielding in the zombie horde of consumers, jumped on board to participate a few years later.

M$, to prevent the only corporate offering that could empower the user's ability to control the means of computation, bought the only well funded linux phone project, and promptly shut it down.

Now, 1 short decade later, we see the consequences of the prescient foresight of these major market monopolies: generations of children, some in their 30s and 40s, suffering constant neurotic mental health disorders, mostly centered around their "phones".

To come back to my first line above, I'm sure this comment will receive even more downvotes because, mostly people don't want to face reality.