SpinCharm OP t1_ja383qt wrote
Reply to comment by urmomaisjabbathehutt in AI is accelerating the loss of individuality in the same way that mass production and consumerism replaced craftsmanship and originality in the 20th century. But perhaps there’s a silver lining. by SpinCharm
I look at it as a new concept - the mass production of distinctiveness. Mass producing individualism.
The very idea strips the person of any real uniqueness. If you are one of countless millions getting something made just for you, by the same company or machine or software, and the other millions are doing the same thing, then just how unique and distinctive are you really going to be? And while it may be individualized, if there really any significant difference between each of those millions?
I think at best, it gives the illusion of individualism. The customer will likely believe, or choose to believe, that theirs is somehow superior. Unique. Tailored. Because in one sense it is. But when you take a step back and look at the larger picture, there’s really nothing unique about any of it.
And that’s where I start feeling disturbed. When millions of people get their validation and affirmations from illusions, then that population is losing control.
Fasobook_HS t1_ja3dj05 wrote
>I think at best, it gives the illusion of individualism
>
>And that’s where I start feeling disturbed. When millions of people get their validation and affirmations from illusions, then that population is losing control.
This already happens since the first periods of globalization of technology. This was (and is) something that never in the human history occurred. I believe that your thoughts are good and applied over a new wave of changes, but this is happening some time by now. And because it is also a sociological advance, it's effective and the progress scale by giants steps, without having us, humans, the time to process and digest in order to make a smooth transition.
There was another era where the process of evolution in this aspects where more slowly so society even tended to stagnate for a time, seeing the changes as something very VERY different. Nowadays we don't even perceive some aspects because all is too fast, because things can be better in a short period of time, things can be more effective, in all good (personal, individual) and bad (society orchestration) meanings.
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urmomaisjabbathehutt t1_ja3w6st wrote
if the item is the only blue item then it is unique in that sense, the ability for many manufacturers doing distinctive or one manufacture making many distintive objets doesn't make them less so
also if the distinctive element is chosen by or made to fit the one customer desire or needs its tailored, a company capable of producing efficciently more tailored products faster doesn't make each product not tailored
just making an example up, i.e. an artisan that produce three diferent products for three customers in 3 months without using any machine but he may be able to produce 3 different products for 3 customers in a month with the help of machines, still 3 distinctive products, still done for three diferent customers except faster
unless we are talking that there is real value in possible flaws created by the lack of precision of doing something manual vs machined
imho the confusion steems from the use of "unique", unique doesn't necesarily need to mean better, it just mean the only one with a particular feature or distinctive element, if a customer prefer that over products mass made to be exactly the same is a choice
the real "uniqueness" is something artificialy added to promote desirability and increase value, we had diamonds sold as expensive rarities, of course they aren't, and used to be that the most perfect the rock the most valuable, now we can manufacture better quality diamonds than nature, suddenly natural diamonds are being advertised as "better" for being natural with their "unique natural flaws"
however tailored add value, it can mean something done to one's specs or needs, anyone are going to chose always something that works for them based on their needs or personal choice if they can aford it than something mass manufactured that works ok for most but will never be able to fully meet every individual needs
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