Artificial Intelligence

[proteanmix]

I really don't know what to make of this quote. I don't watch the show but it reminds me of an article I read about narcissism and young adults:

"Conforming is not cool," he adds. "Embracing who you are and what makes you different is actually what's really cool ... The kids that are different and out there and expressive and are bold with those choices, those are the people that grow up to be people we all want to hang out with, that become celebrities or become really successful in what they do because they believe in who they are."

I don't deny the spirit of what he's saying but there's something mixed in with this that doesn't sit well with me, I'm not quite sure why. It's the last part of his statement: being bold with your choices doesn't mean it's a good choice, it doesn't mean the choices were based on something worthwhile or meritorious. IDK, it feels like something is embedded in this statement that is very narcissistic and unrepentant even if it needs to be. It seems like he's equating and connecting ideas that don't stem from the same source.

I've always thought to myself "You've got the mic now what do you have to say?" All eyes are on you. What's going to come out of your mouth? Lots of people have mics and megaphones and gongs and it's just noise bleeding our eardrums and withering our already stunted attention spans. A cacophony someone's passing off as freaking Mozart or Beethoven. You don't even know what to focus on or how to pick out the beautiful melodies in all the madness. It seems like so many people get the mic in their hands and they stand there stuck on stupid because they never really had anything to say in the first place, they just pretended they did for whatever attention whoring reasons they harbored in their brains.

Here's a quote from the narcissism thingy thingy I read:

Narcissism is not simply a confident attitude or a healthy feeling of self-worth. As we explore in chapters 2 and 3, narcissists are overconfident, not just confident, and — unlike most people high in self-esteem — place little value on emotionally close relationships. We will also address other myths, such as "narcissists are insecure" (they're typically not), and "it's necessary to be narcissistic to succeed today" (in most contexts, and long term, narcissism is actually a deterrent to success).

Understanding the narcissism epidemic is important because its long-term consequences are destructive to society. American culture's focus on self-admiration has caused a flight from reality to the land of grandiose fantasy. We have phony rich people (with interest-only mortgages and piles of debt), phony beauty (with plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures), phony athletes (with performance-enhancing drugs), phony celebrities (via reality TV and YouTube), phony genius students (with grade inflation), a phony national economy (with $11 trillion of government debt), phony feelings of being special among children (with parenting and education focused on self-esteem), and phony friends (with the social networking explosion). All this fantasy might feel good, but, unfortunately, reality always wins. The mortgage meltdown and the resulting financial crisis are just one demonstration of how inflated desires eventually crash to earth.

The cultural focus on self-admiration began with the shift toward focusing on the individual in the 1970s, documented in Tom Wolf's article on “The Me Decade” in 1976 and Lasch's “The Culture of Narcissism.” In the three decades since, narcissism has grown in ways these authors never could have imagined. The fight for the greater good of the 1960s became looking out for number one by the 1980s. Parenting became more indulgent, celebrity worship grew, and reality TV became a showcase of narcissistic people. The Internet brought useful technology but also the possibility of instant fame and a "Look at me!" mentality. Using botulinum toxin to smooth facial wrinkles to perpetuate a youthful face birthed a huge industry. The easy accessibility of credit allowed people to look better off financially than they actually were.

Link to The Narcissism Epidemic

To flesh this out a bit, today I was talking with one of my coworkers about our recent annual meeting. She told me how one of the attendees threw a handful of papers at her and asked her if she knew who he was as if that was something she should be afraid of. All of this over his name being misspelled, which he typed in himself. The outrageousness of some of these doctors we deal with is insane! And since they're doctors, they have this like wormy attitude of superiority because they're eminent in such and such specialty and field or they're were on CNN or on this or that show.

This is really disgusting and rampant and no one thinks it's weird or strange.

 

[Chimerical]

Something embedded? I don't seem to think so, I think he just worded it "weird". Something was lost in translation when he spoke. Saying to be bold in your choices seems to be a proxy like when you tell someone to flick their wrist while playing tennis. Flicking the wrist doesn't actually do anything, but it will cause you to do all the things, other than flicking your wrists, that you should do.

Being bold with a choice would me that you'd have to pick something you're able to be bold with. It's the easy way out I guess.

Narcicism and petty superficial selfishness aren't the same. But this article seems to make it appear as if they are.

 

[Quiet]

"Conforming is not cool," he adds. "Embracing who you are and what makes you different is actually what's really cool ... The kids that are different and out there and expressive and are bold with those choices, those are the people that grow up to be people we all want to hang out with, that become celebrities or become really successful in what they do because they believe in who they are."

This just strikes me as "suggestive" somehow. Sort of like a subtle form of brainwashing. I'm quite the introvert, and for what it's worth, the kids who were all "outspoken", were in all honesty, not the kids I wanted to be like. This quote also seems more of an opinion based on the author's preferences, rather than on any spiritual, scientific or otherwise philosophical basis.