Holy crap this story knocked me over.

[joe_vinegar@mastodon.bida.im]

@faoluin @mttaggart @WeirdWriter #LLM https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-colonization-of-confidence/ "The unraveling doesn't happen all at once. It is a slow rot, a decomposition of confidence that the Germans call Zersetzung[1]. Psychological decomposition. It was the method the Stasi used to break dissidents not with torture, but with gaslighting, with subtle alterations of reality until the subject lost faith in their own mind."

[1].https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zersetzung
[...] to undermine their self-confidence and self-esteem. [...] designed to intimidate and destabilise them by subjecting them to repeated disappointment, and to socially alienate them by interfering with and disrupting their relationships with others [...] to induce personal crises in victims, leaving them too unnerved and psychologically distressed to have the time and energy for anti-government activism.

[daridrea@graphics.social]

@mttaggart thought: imagine that for example, because of the LLMs and their consequences... there'll be no second umberto Eco and the Prague Cemetery ️

thanks @WeirdWriter

[insidertreat@infosec.exchange]

@mttaggart finally set aside time to read this and thank you so much for sharing. Incredibly moving, generating such a varied range of emotions. Best thing I've read in a long while.

[crowbriarhexe@tech.lgbt]

@FritzAdalis @mttaggart yes!!!

[crowbriarhexe@tech.lgbt]

@mttaggart this is just soul-saving at hope-preserving at this moment in time

[distractal@hachyderm.io]

@mttaggart "Hallucination of competence" is an incredible term

[apophis@yourwalls.today]

@mttaggart
> "No," I say, and my voice is the low growl of a guard dog. "The hinge was perfect. The bell is a lie. Leo, that machine didn't improve your writing. It erased your grandmother."

this (in the context of what built up to it) hit hard

[zordrak@tiggi.es]

@mttaggart This is pretty awesome. Definitely tugged at my emotions.

[apophis@yourwalls.today]

@mttaggart
> "I feel so stupid. I let it into my head and now I can't get it out. I look at my own thoughts and they look wrong. They look like errors."

jesus fuck this really goes to the heart of it

[leighelse@mastodon.nz]

@mttaggart I love this.

[bfelix@burnthis.town]

@mttaggart it's completely moving. Couldn't stop reading it. Thanks for sharing!