You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Brillyant comments on I attempted the AI Box Experiment again! (And won - Twice!) - Less Wrong Discussion

36 Post author: Tuxedage 05 September 2013 04:49AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (163)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: AndyWood 06 September 2013 07:18:46AM 9 points [-]

At the risk of sounding naive, I'll come right out and say it. It completely baffles me that so many people speak of this game as having an emotional toll. How is it possible for words, in a chat window, in the context of a fictional role-play, to have this kind of effect on people? What in god's name are you people saying to each other in there? I consider myself to be emotionally normal, a fairly empathetic person, etc. I can imagine experiencing disgust at, say, very graphic textual descriptions. There was that one post a few years back that scared some people - I wasn't viscerally worried by it, but I did understand how some people could be. That's literally the full extent of strings of text that I can remotely imagine causing distress (barring, say, real world emails about real-world tragedies). How is it possible that some of you are able to be so shocking / shocked in private chat sessions? Do you just have more vivid imaginations than I do?

Comment author: Brillyant 09 September 2013 09:49:26PM *  1 point [-]

What in god's name are you people saying to each other in there?

I laughed out loud in an environment where that loud laughter was not very appropriate. And it was worth it. Thank you.

You summarized my feelings on this game better than I could have. I'm not compelled at all by the examples given in the responses to your comment up to this point (i.e. email, mortality and effective fiction can be emotionally draining), and I'd be interested in hearing someone else weigh in on why this AI Box experiment is so emotional and pyschologically powerful for some people?