Bitter Grace

Another podcast I heard today, a Radiolab episode called"More or Less Human", explored AI from various perspectives. My favourite part was toward the end, and focused on two types of VR programme created by a particular team. The first type had the human participant's virtual body differ substantially from their physical one-- female instead of male, short instead of tall, of a different race. That sounds like such a fine way to cultivate a little empathy from the privileged, with regard to their privilege and others' non-privilege.

In the second programme, the participant alternated between being himself and being Sigmund Freud, speaking and hearing in both personae. And in the account given, the participant found it very helpful.

And I thought about how, in my view or for me, a good therapist is useful in helping people hear themselves.

And then I thought about inhabiting the Freud character as being a prompt to adopt a relatively dispassionate, more analytical point of view.

And then I thought about how, especially when unhappy or uncomfortably self-justifying, one can be trapped inside one's own sequences....