The Discomfort of Comfort: Big Brother Dependency

I can bet that you have used AI this year. On your homework, on home cooking recipes,

brainstorming—I get it. I’m not here to penalize you. It’s convenient and has all the answers you

could ever ask for. Every word instantly given to you on a silver platter, catered to your

personality and your needs. Now, let me ask you, how much of your thinking is actually yours?

How much was handed to you through an algorithm? If someone was to ask you why you

support what you did, would you be able to provide a sufficient answer straight from memory?

We think these tools are just quick shortcuts to help in our day-to-day, but we are very subtly

letting it replace our own intuition and thoughts. In fact, the dependency is so deep that I had to

use AI to brainstorm this paragraph warning you about it.

Let’s use a hypothetical situation. In an alternate universe, say that a tyrant rose to power. The

tyrant really loves swimming and thinks everyone should. If that tyrant said, “Hey, everyone take

swimming lessons right now, or else capital punishment will be inflicted on those who defy.”,

people would be terrified. But, there would be some rebels. People hate being forced to do

things, and someone saying a couple of words won’t make them automatically comply. Now,

let’s say that this is the same situation, but instead of a tyrant forcing everyone, you are eased

into it. Swimming videos on your feed, ads about swim trunks, videos recommended to you

about how refreshing the cold water is when it hits your skin. Eventually, you would become at

least somewhat acclimated to this. If someone told you to go swim, you’d think to yourself

(partially) and go swimming. You were eased into liking it. This is what sociologists call the

“Boiling Frog” effect. If you dropped a frog into boiling water, it would jump out. Like the

tyrants and the rebels. If you put it in warm water and eased up the heat, it would stay until it

cooked. You might not realize it, but that is exactly what is being done today.

The pool isn’t hypothetical, it’s what you’re looking at right now. Your phone knows what you

say, like with autocorrect sometimes putting in misspelled words because of how often you type

it, ads tailored to your likes and wants, and algorithms being generated because of these things.

Try going on your YouTube homepage. You’d probably see multiple videos you’d want to watch.

Every time you watch something, data is taken and used to recommend you more and more.

Why don’t we notice this, though? Well, we can use psychology to see how this can easily go

unnoticed by us. Our brain operates in two modes. Cognitive Strain and Cognitive Ease.

Cognitive Strain is when you use your brain to think deeply, double-check, wrestle with doubt, or

do a hard math equation. Cognitive Ease is when everything is familiar, smooth, predictable, and

easy. By nature, we want ease. Typing a hard question into an AI chat box allows us to use zero

mental energy. We mistake comfort for safety. We are also able to quickly adapt to new levels of

comfort or stimulus, turning it into our new ‘normal’. Let’s say a hard question was typed into

the chat box every time it was given. It becomes your new normal, and you don’t think much of

it.

So take a second and look at your device. Look at how much it knows you. Better than you know

yourself. It can influence you by subtly giving you biased information, all with an endless

swipe that we try to stop from happening. It feeds into the things you watch, what to say, and

what to believe. We can think about a philosophical paradox of the Ship of Theseus. If you keep

replacing every wooden plank on a ship over time, at what point does it stop being the original

ship? If you keep being fed information and are given everything on a silver platter, letting you

mindlessly not use your mind, at what point are you not you? Use your heads more often, and

take that question to ponder on. Find comfort in the discomfort so that one day, you