Look, I’ve been staring at this article for three hours now, nursing my fourth Wild Turkey, trying to make sense of this latest piece of techno-enlightenment bullshit. Some genius wants us to believe we can become the next Socrates by having deep conversations with a chatbot. Christ.
Here’s the thing about Socrates - he was a real pain in the ass who wandered around Athens bothering people with questions until they finally got so fed up they made him drink poison. Now we’re supposed to recreate this with an AI that’s basically a very sophisticated autocomplete? Give me a break.
But let me take another sip and break this down for you poor bastards.
The whole premise is that you can become a “deep thinker” by arguing with ChatGPT. It’s like saying you can become Muhammad Ali by shadowboxing with your reflection. Sure, you might work up a sweat, but you’re not exactly risking getting your teeth knocked out, are you?
The article goes on about how AI can be your “24/7 philosophical sparring partner.” You know who else is available 24/7? The voices in my head after a bottle of bourbon. At least they have the decency to tell me I’m full of shit when I start spouting nonsense about the meaning of life at 3 AM.
I decided to test this theory myself. Spent a week trying to become Aristotle by debating with various AI chatbots. You want to know what profound wisdom I gained? That artificial intelligence is just as good at circular reasoning as my ex-wife’s lawyer.
The kicker is this line about how “human-AI collaboration begets a contemporary Socratic method.” Yeah, and my local dive bar begets contemporary Shakespeare when the karaoke machine breaks down.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying AI is useless. It’s great at certain things, like reminding me how many drinks I’ve had or calculating the tip when my vision gets blurry. But teaching you to think deeply? That’s like expecting a parrot to teach you poetry because it can repeat Wordsworth.
The real problem here isn’t the technology - it’s this desperate attempt to shortcut actual human growth. You can’t speed-run wisdom, folks. Trust me, I’ve tried. All you get is a hangover and some really questionable notes written on bar napkins.
Want to know how to really become a deep thinker? Suffer. Live. Make mistakes. Get your heart broken. Watch the sunrise from the wrong side of good decisions. Have actual conversations with real humans who will call you on your bullshit.
The article suggests you can somehow bypass all that messy human experience by having sanitized philosophical discussions with a language model that’s never had a real emotion or a bad day at work. It’s never woken up next to a mistake or watched its dreams die in real-time.
You know what Socrates would say about all this? Actually, I don’t know what he’d say. I’m too drunk to remember my classical philosophy. But I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be impressed by our attempt to replace human wisdom with algorithmic approximations of thought.
Look, if you want to chat with AI about deep topics, knock yourself out. But don’t kid yourself that you’re achieving enlightenment. You’re just having a sophisticated conversation with the world’s most eloquent echo chamber.
The real truth? Wisdom hurts. It costs something. It comes from living and failing and trying again. No amount of perfectly crafted AI responses will give you that.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my bourbon needs refreshing, and I’ve got some real human consciousness to alter.
Yours in perpetual cynicism, Henry Chinaski
P.S. If anyone needs me, I’ll be at O’Malley’s, teaching the jukebox about existentialism.
Source: Aspire To Become A Deep Thinker Via Use Of Generative AI And The Legendary Socratic Method