[Tcepsa]

I understand that this is kind of beside the point, but it seems like a bad thing to compare inventions to haunted artifacts that mind controlled their users into betraying their friends to a powerfully evil being. (Though since it is being powered by GenAI, which has also driven people to do bad things, perhaps it is an apt comparison.)

[CarVac]

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale.

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.

[arjie]

Sci-fi author: in my book I invented the idea of inserting human dna into a bacterium and it killing us all

Tech company: by inserting human DNA into a bacterium we can make very good insulin that will help diabetics

Online Commenter: this is just like that book where the insulin kills us all!

My take on this entire genre: https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Story-Logic_Bias

And Eliezer Yudkowsky’s more eloquent precursor: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rHBdcHGLJ7KvLJQPk/the-logica...

[sebastiennight]

To be more accurate to what we've been seeing for a decade, it would have to be something like

     Sci-fi author: in my book I invented the idea of inserting human dna into a bacterium and this GeneKiller bacteria killing protesters to the regime

     Tech company: by inserting human DNA into a bacterium we can make very good insulin that will help diabetics. We call it GeneKiller and we offer it to the regime to start testing on protesters first

     Online Commenter: this is just like that book where the insulin kills us all!

[Folcon]

The problem I have with this is not that I disagree with it, it's a good observation, it's that it ignores humans are very example biased and we really don't have many good positive examples, there's a dearth of positive / utopian perspective in fiction and it's absence sets the overton window handily

I mean the Jetson's is one of the examples that comes to mind when I'm reaching for a positive example of future robots, the Jetsons! A cartoon from the 1960s is in my top 10 examples of "Positive AI / Robot having futures"

Having a more positive takes on the future would go a long way to helping people understand what they're place in it might be, we did used to have periods of history where things were more positive, right now we're really lacking that perspective

[sebastiennight]

Off the top of my mind right now:

- the kid from the AI movie

- the Sentient Intelligence from the Peter F Hamilton books

I think there are quite a few positive examples if you dig enough. It's just that (a) none of those examples are being used as the mold for what large tech companies are set to achieve, because (b) none of those examples imply the sort of capital or power-concentration incentive that a capitalist company would look for.

If it requires huge capital/power to bring the utopian story into reality and there is no capital/power incentive to do so, these stories will remain on paper.

Whereas, if the Torment Nexus story details how its inventors got to rule the world for a millenium, you can see how it's more interesting for a certain type of person to gather the resources to build it if they have/can acquire the relevant skillset.

[skinfaxi]

That's a very interesting observation. Why do you suppose that is? Naively I suspect that humans can't envision that kind of utopia without some authority keeping it in order, and power is ultimately a corrupting force so the story always plays out the same.

[PoignardAzur]

You're missing the point of the meme, which is not "technology is bad", but "technologists theming their new poorly-tested invention after a popular story where the invention hurts people is gross".

If your tech company calls its product "The Genophage™" it's fair to ask if they're taking the safety/ethics implications very seriously.

[malfist]

> tech company

> taking the safety/ethics implications very seriously

In the era of move fast and break things that includes things like enabling genocide, is an oxymoron.

[KaiserPro]

Tech company: "We will now lobby the government to allow us to keep astronomically high insulin prices through large scale collusion with insurance companies"

Look, the issue is two fold:

1) The Zuckerbergs class are insulated naive boys who've never spent time in the real world. So they do not understand that thier actions might have consequences.

2) every fucking tech giant starts out promising liberty, then gradually creates either a blood sucking money printer, or some hellish sock puppet system that props up their warped world view.

[NavinF]

Insulin is $25 at Walmart for a vial that lasts a month. 2 vials if you’re fat. Find out where you read about “astronomically high insulin prices” and consider what else that author lied about

[KaiserPro]

Yup, what drove that price drop, was it a technical breakthrough?

Given that in 2019 10ml of insulin outside of USA was what $20? in the USA it was ~250?

[NavinF]

Not aware of any price drop. Walmart always sold dirt cheap insulin and it was never $250. You’re thinking of brand name insulin.

[mikestorrent]

At least we're giving out free verification cans

[Chaosvex]

Drink your Mountain Dew verification can to continue.

[rob74]

Wasn't that Kool-Aid?

(yeah, I know that's not sold in cans, and actually it was Flavor-Aid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid#Backgrou...)

[snerbles]

Different meme, about adtech-driven dystopia. See original greentext [0]

[0] https://files.catbox.moe/eqg0b2.png

[rob74]

Ah, ok, thanks for the clarification!

[butlike]

That got me good. Hehehe

[archagon]

For more info, see my blog post titled "Get in the Torment Nexus or get left behind."

[malfist]

If we didn't invent the torment nexus, china would have and they'd make all the money.

[NavinF]

"one of my favorite conceits is from the novel [redacted] where they spend the entire book talking about the threat of the space hun invader barbarian belters and how backwards but feral they are and then when you finally meet them they're sophisticated egalitarian transhumanists and all the characters you've been following have been living in space north korea, functionally enslaved and living out their lives blithely consuming copium state propaganda

the 'torment nexus' is what you'd call heaven if we built it and you weren't in it"

[stavros]

Where's that from?

[NavinF]

A locked account on twitter. locked = only people who follow him can read his tweets and there's no way to follow until he unlocks. The book is Hyperion.

[stavros]

Ah, thank you.

[annzabelle]

At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel "Don't Create The Torment Nexus."

https://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538?lang=e...

[FeepingCreature]

Of course, that tweet was talking about the Metaverse. So really it should be classic sci-fi novel "Neal Stephenson Invents A Ton Of Cool Things, But The Torment Nexus May Be The Coolest."

Like, I love the Torment Nexus trope, but it's somehow gotten coined with the worst first example imaginable, and the only reason it works as a meme is that nobody realizes this.

(The problem with the Zuckerverse is exactly that it's not the Metaverse from Snow Crash. The whole point of the Metaverse is that it's built on open protocols! It's literally got a geometric representation of IPv4 in it!)

[dd8601fn]

Yup. I absolutely want the metaverse. Just not a cartoon Facebook one.

[avaer]

Why would that comparison be bad if it's accurate?

Also, "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Both can be made good and evil.

[latexr]

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what you’re asking, but your parent comment isn’t saying the comparison is bad in the sense of being inaccurate, but bad in the sense of being ill-advised.

[melagonster]

I hope people at least know that they should not create Skynet.

[adastra22]

We are literally creating won’t right now.

[p-e-w]

It’s not accurate, it’s absurd hyperbole no different from the kind the people who peddle it have arrogantly ridiculed their entire lives.

A mentally unstable person being “made” to do something by a chatbot is no different from other mentally unstable people doing bad things because they saw them in a TV show.

[lwansbrough]

You don't think there's a difference between passive entertainment and a conversation with a sycophantic enabler?

[McGlockenshire]

No, actually, an interactive textual conversation is a significantly different thing than a television show.

[RossBencina]

You think mental instability is a necessary prerequisite for covert persuasion?

[febusravenga]

No but those have less or no guards against it - so _we the society_ ;) stand and try guard them.

Rest of us have some chance to stand against persuasion.

[fjdjshsh]

I thought that was part of the appeal of this. There's something spooky and ironic about it.

[trhway]

Once/if we lose understanding of the tech it will become magic/haunted artifacts.

[archagon]

I had to do a double take. They’re framing this comparison as a positive thing?!?

(On second thought, the LLM probably made up this analogy on its own, which... in a way, is even worse.)

[brookst]

Definitely concerning when things are made up

[latexr]

There’s a long tradition in media of people completely missing the obvious and taking the opposite lesson from what was intended. One example is finance bros idolising Patrick Bateman (American Psycho).

https://nypost.com/2025/04/16/entertainment/american-psycho-...

[anigbrowl]

That explains why the video was posted on X

[boothby]

> it seems like a bad thing to compare inventions to haunted artifacts that mind controlled their users into betraying their friends to a powerfully evil being.

It's worked pretty well for Palantir?

[devmor]

You hit on the point at the end… It’s not a bad comparison, it’s an apt one.