I’m actually moving in the opposite direction. I was (still am really) a massive introvert, then I got really, really, really sick and realized I have zero support if something happens where I can’t take care of myself. I realized at the end of the day humans are a social species and we need some level of human connection to thrive.

I dig giant robots!
You dig giant robots!
We dig giant robots!
Chicks dig giant robots!

Regarding pets, enjoy the time you have together and save the mourning for when they’re six feet under. I was sad about the aging of my dog, but realized that to her, humans are basically immortal constants of love and comfort. Looking at it that way made me feel a bit better.

Speaking of addictive thought processes, maladaptive daydreaming. I’ve half joked about it over on !worldbuilding@lemmy.world, but it really is addictive. Recently I realized it’s not healthy to reject reality and substitute my own. Even if my reality has mechs and this one doesn’t :(

Yes, because it will fail otherwise. If only Linux nerds and tankies hang out here, than every community is just a slightly differently flavored tankie/linux community, and we’ll die on the vine. We want normies to see the value in the fediverse, because then they’ll start to ask why they should be giving all their privacy to big corporations.

Only if it were 100% local.

We’re just hanging out waiting for trick or treaters to show up.

SAILING MISHAP!

Reminds me of Roller coaster tycoon.

DOCTOR OCTOGONAPUS BLAAAAAAGH

H*R has irreparably ruined my vocabulary. I’ll often say “ooh, dere is two of dem!” whenever there are unexpectedly two of something, and “NOOOTHIIING!” when I check outside for a package and it’s not there yet. Also “ARROW’d” as above.

I also often say “hellot” instead of “hello”.

Was just about to post this exact question lol. Judging by how often I say it, I’d have to say

IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZER!

Normies. I want decentralized social media to grow but to do that it needs people who aren’t self-selecting.

Disclaimer: I only speak for myself. Blindness does not respect class, creed, or culture, so every blind person will have their own opinions and experiences. In my case AI hasn’t shown much tangible benefit beyond what clever algorithms are already doing, for optical character recognition etc.

Beyond blindness My knee-jerk reaction to AI is strongly negative simply because it’s another locus of concentrated societal power (Who else is there besides Open AI and Anthropic and maybe Groq? IIRC everyone else is just using one of those on the backend. So that’s what, three people, a few dozen if you include the other C-suite folks at each company, pulling a lot of very consequential levers) But that opinion is probably par for the course for your average Lemming.

I can see forcing oneself to eat or drink; my experiences with stimulant-based ADHD meds tells me it’s doable but not at all pleasant. But good luck forcing someone to sleep when they don’t feel tired.

When looking for videos to listen to in the background I always prioritize “low quality” stuff. They don’t have the perfect mic or studio setup, don’t meticulously edit out background noise, talk in a less polished manner, don’t have a background music track. Prior to the rise of AI it was because such videos were less overstimulating and felt more down to earth, now it’s because I know they’re humans.

Don’t have any recommendations you haven’t mentioned. As a blind person I listen to synthesized speech nearly all day long, so I’m pretty good at catching AI voices. I think the ones trained on IRL people have a “choppy” or “quavering” quality. I’m not an audiophile or computational linguist so I’m sure there’s a term for this I’m missing, but the overall audio has a particular tell to it.

It’s getting harder, though. Now I listen for things like odd prosidy, stuff like odd pauses or inflections or inconsistent pronunciations.

For example, the phrase “So I went to the store” could have a number of inflections that encode info about the ongoing conversation, whether I intend to continue speaking or whether I’m yielding the floor, whether I’m asking a question, indicating surprise, etc. AI is getting better at this but it’s not perfect.

Pronunciation of proper nouns or words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently in different contexts is a good indicator. Just the other day my mom was watching some AI-generated listicle and the voiceover mispronounced the name of a city after correctly pronouncing it every time before.

I just hated my old job (inbound call center agent) so hard that any anxiety about going back to school was overshadowed by relief at not having to talk nonstop 8 hours a day again.

Unfortunately I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my current job (IT) because both Pearson and Cisco make test-taking miserable if you have a disability. My current job isn’t under threat, but I let all my certs lapse because I’m just sick and tired of their nonsense.

I’m going to Gamalon to aid him.

Pfft listen to this young’un with multiple cells over here.

Listen to this hairless bipedal whipper-snapper. Back in MY day we THREW poop at one another. 🐒