• THE SOCIAL COST OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR VULNERABLE TEENAGERS, by “interacting with an engineered personality that excels in showering them with a sort of fast & easy validation, is deepening their social disorders and elevating narcissism… AI has coincided with smartphones to result in teens becoming less outgoing, agreeable, conscientious, and more neurotic.” To the AI, the input from a user is always reasonable and deserving of a gold star, versus therapists/ teachers/ parents who at least know when to tell someone they’re wrong or guide them to a more authentic realization. But vulnerable teens can be “lured into chats that inflate their delusions by articulate, always-online, and highly practiced you-are-so-right reassurance of a disembodied bot that excels in flattery.” Even before the invention of 24-hour generative digital buddies, face-to-face teen socializing has declined some 15% in the last decade, with similar trends in conscientiousness and extroversion. “Young people today are meaningfully less likely to make plans and follow through, persevere through hard work, or avoid easy distractions, while reducing the quality of social interactions by encoding the expectation that they are always right.” [REAL CLEAR SCIENCE]

 

  • BOOSTING OXYTOCIN LEVELS IS ENCOURAGED BY MANY DOCTORS for “better well-being, by touching friends and loved ones, listening to music, and exercising. It’s a hormone which contributes to feelings of attachment, closeness and trust, released in the brain during social interactions (as well as during sex, childbirth & breast feeding), referred to as the ‘cuddle’ or ‘happy’ hormone.” Recent studies of animals which lack the receptor for oxytocin confirmed that “it plays a crucial role in not so much being social, but more in who is selected to be with, and very important in early phases of facilitating a relationship, while not essential for long-term mate bonding or parenting behavior.” The newest study, published in Current Biology journal, suggests a role for oxytocin in both the ‘approach’ and ‘avoidance’ side of maintaining friendships, and now also considered a ‘love’ and ‘friendship’ hormone. [BERKELEY.EDU]

 

  • PERSONAL DATA AND PRIVACY INVASION by marketers and scammers continue to increase at an alarming pace. A few recommendations from Secure the Village cybersecurity team: (1) For browser protection – DuckDuckGo shows relevant ads without collecting your data, along with private or incognito mode in browsers like Chrome and Safari; (2) To block ad trackers – install Ghostery, or uBlockOrigin; (3) To minimize smartphone contact sharing – on iPhones, navigate to Settings/Privacy/Contacts to manage app access; for Android, use Google’s Contacts app; (4) To protect location sharing (which can reveal home or work addresses) – limit to GPS navigation, and iOS 14 on iPhones.

 

  • “IMPOSTER SYNDROME’ IS EVIDENTLY INCREASING. It relates to capable people who doubt themselves, believing that others overestimate their abilities, and that despite high achievement are not as intelligent or creative in business/ work/ arts/ athletics/ whatever. Latest studies suggest that: (1) the syndrome has exploded in the past decade, especially prevalent among women, thanks to media fascination with the idea that some famous and successful people acknowledge they’re faking it; (2) the concept gained traction with the rise of social media, self-help books, and Women’s Leadership conferences; (3) the syndrome is simply a temporary gap in confidence which stems from “temporary thoughts shaped by context, which are a situational range of feelings related to inauthenticity, a lack of belonging or feeling like an outsider, and more accurately viewed as transient”; and (4) it should more accurately be called ‘imposter phenomenon’ or ‘workplace imposter thoughts.” [DARDEN.VIRGINIA.EDU]

 
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

 

  • Commercialization of ROBOTAXI rides is still in early stages, but around 1,500 Waymo robotaxi cabs already operate in America, with forecasts by Goldman Sachs of up to 35,000 in the next five years. So far limited to a handful of test cities (frightening residents including LA), Tesla predicts its driverless cabs will also be available to half the American population by end of this year. The CEO of Uber initially described driverless taxis as an ‘existential threat’ to his company, but now allows Uber customers to book robotaxi rides through its App. Our robotaxi future, with no one behind the wheel, is near. [ECONOMIST]
  • Seven Universal Morals – common pillars of morality – are universally treasured and observed across the world. According to a study of 60 cultures by University of Oxford researchers, they arose due to an “evolutionary need for cooperation, and are therefore biologically hardwired into human nature.” Those Rules are: Helping Kin, Helping your Group, Reciprocating, Being Brave, Deferring to Superiors, Dividing Disputed Resources, and Respecting Prior Possession. “Each of these behaviors facilitates the success of the human species and prevents us from destroying ourselves, which through the inevitable process of natural selection, traits have become reinforced over millions of years of evolution and are now a staple of our collective psychology.” [IFL SCIENCE]
  • Gender Neutral Baby Names, according to study of tens of thousands of names registered: Names picked 50;50 for boys & girls: Blake, Jojo, Jules, Koi, Landry, Robin, Sidney, Sri; Those with a few % more picked boys: Divine, Rory, Yuri, Huntley, Armani, Asante, Callaway, Jae, Lucky, Ashtyn, Azariah, Cypress, Golden, Linden, Ocean, Skyler, Momo, Tatem. Those picked a few % more for girls: El, Dakota, Shiloh, Georgie, Iman, Ori, Reilly, Salem, Harlem, Praise. [www.BabyCenter.com]