#Cognitive Atrophy

[neurodiversepolls]

This is for people with intelligence atrophy! Before you knew you had intelligence atrophy, did you think you had an intellectual disability? What did you do about it?

Intelligence atrophy is when you lose a lot of your cognitive abilities. This happens when someone is so severely depressed that they get stuck in a catatonic state. A catatonic state is when you either can't move at all or can only move a little bit. Depressed people in catatonic states spend most of their days staring at the wall or staring at their phone. They are unable to practice things like reading, writing, talking, making decisions, solving problems, or taking care of themselves. These are all a part of cognitive functioning. If someone goes multiple years without practing cognitive functioning, they will lose their cognitive functioning skills. Intelligence atrophy also damages their memory, so they may forget a time where they ever had cognitive functioning skills.

Intelligence atrophy often presents very similarly to intellectual disabilities. So, I'm wondering how many other people experienced intelligence atrophy, but thought they had an intellectual disability instead.

Intellectual disability will be shortened to ID. Intelligence atrophy will be shorted to IA.

No. I experienced IA, but I never thought I had an ID.

No, but I did mistake my IA for something else.

Unsure. I wondered if I had an ID, but never did further research into it.

Yes. I kept it to myself.

Yes. I only told close friends and/or online communities.

Yes. I was open about it.

Yes. I tried to get a diagnosis.

I have an ID and also experienced IA.

I have never experienced IA.

My answer is different from all the ones here.

Please keep the wording the same as I'm trying to write this in plain english (accessible writing).

[tobitoooo]

I feel my brain peeling Neurons flaking Have I really sold my thinking?

Efficiency called. They want to cash in their check. How much efficient do I have to be,  if I’m sacrificing my brain to float on a deck?

Perfectionism knocked Insecurity whimpered They’re so much better than you, what can you offer?

Why bother trying? The electric specter whispered I forced myself into it’s hard, warm hands  and held it against my ears

Can’t blame my neurotic friend Who’s the rat in the hat I wonder Is it the one asking the questions Or the one eating another’s neurons down under?

To write like the others, sing like the other, talk like the others But never put in the hours or barely even bother Do you deserve to have electricity in your brain? When you could have fed it to our pet eldritch monster

I have the desire, to live again I’ll starve our incomprehensible horror If the pain is as sweet as the gain

(On using AI to outsource my thinking. This one is too angsty for me, but it's what i felt. The lyrics don’t even rhyme, it looks weird and makes me real uncomfortable for some reason, but I’m so proud, this is the first poem I have written after my angst filled teenage years- Yay me! (I don’t think I’ve changed 😭) It's not perfect at all, I just wanted to try. I want to write about things that make me happy and bubbly too, but I had to let this rot out.)

(Constructive criticism/ feedback/ improvement areas are always welcome, but please don’t hurt me, I just wanted to share my thoughts, no matter how shittily phrased)

[ponder-us]

Is ChatGPT the new "Boob Tube?"

JB: Hi. In his book, “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television,” Jerry Mander (such a zeitgeist name – am I right), noted that scientific studies showed that children had lower brain activity watching television than they did when they were asleep. Now, in an article for The Sunday Times titled, “Using ChatGPT for Work? It Might Make You Stupid,” Mark Sellman describes experiments done by…

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

My Five Star Review of Train Your Brain for a Healthier and Happier Life

If There Is Only Book You Choose to Read in 2025, Try This to Improve Your Brain Function, Cognitive Performance, and Mental Health As a retired healthcare professional, I have spent decades observing the challenges people face when trying to improve their mental well-being. The struggle to manage stress, maintain focus, and sustain mental clarity becomes increasingly common as we age.  I have…

[mortalityplays]

much less alarmed by the 'cognitive impact' of LLM use than I am by the fact that so many people apparently believe your brain can atrophy or permanently lose function in the space of four months because you used fancy sparknotes to write a couple of essays

[prodigalknight]

eta

[elbiotipo]

I think that relying too much in LLMs can indeed harm your capacity for learning, in the same way that poor systems of learning (rote memorization, just copying whatever without thinking) can. Learning is a thing you need... to learn. Even LLMs can be a useful tool for learning as long as you have a good learning strategy.

That paper that says that AIs cause COGNITIVE ATROPHY is still unreviewd and smells so much of bullshit that I'm tearing up from here. Do not share it uncritically.

[cripplecharacters]

Where to Start Your Research When Writing a Disabled Character

[large text: Where to Start Your Research When Writing a Disabled Character]

So you have decided that you want to make a disabled character! Awesome. But what's next? What information should you decide on at the early phrase of making the character?

This post will only talk about the disability part of the character creation process. Obviously, a disabled character needs a personality, interests, and backstory as every other one. But by including their disability early in the process, you can actually get it to have a deeper effect on the character - disability shouldn't be their whole life, but it should impact it. That's what disabilities do.

If you don't know what disability you would want to give them in the first place;

[large text: If you don't know what disability you would want to give them in the first place;]

Start broad. Is it sensory, mobility related, cognitive, developmental, autoimmune, neurodegenerative; maybe multiple of these, or maybe something else completely? Pick one and see what disabilities it encompasses; see if anything works for your character. Or...

If you have a specific symptom or aid in mind, see what could cause them. Don't assume or guess; not every wheelchair user is vaguely paralyzed below the waist with no other symptoms, not everyone with extensive scarring got it via physical trauma. Or...

Consider which disabilities are common in real life. Cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, stroke, cataracts, diabetes, intellectual disability, neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, thyroid disorders, autism, dwarfism, arthritis, cancers, brain damage, just to name a few.

Decide what specific type of condition they will have. If you're thinking about them having albinism, will it be ocular, oculocutaneous, or one of the rare syndrome-types? If you want to give them spinal muscular atrophy, which of the many possible onsets will they have? If they have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which one out of the 13 different types do they have? Is their amputation below, or above the knee (it's a major difference)? Not all conditions will have subtypes, but it's worth looking into to not be surprised later. This will help you with further research.

If you're really struggling with figuring out what exact disability would make sense for your character, you can send an ask. Just make sure that you have tried the above and put actual specifics in your ask to give us something to work with. You can also check out our "disabled character ideas" tag.

Here are some ideas for a character using crutches.

Here are some ideas for a character with a facial difference (obligatory link: what is a facial difference?).

If you already know what disability your character is going to have;

[large text: If you already know what disability your character is going to have;]

Start by reading about the onset and cause of the condition. It could be acquired, congenital, progressive, potentially multiple of these. They could be caused by an illness, trauma, or something else entirely. Is your character a congenital amputee, or is it acquired? If acquired - how recently? Has it been a week, or 10 years? What caused them to become disabled - did they have meningitis, or was it an accident? Again, check what your options are - there are going to be more diverse than you expect.

Read about the symptoms. Do not assume or guess what they are. You will almost definitely discover something new. Example: a lot of people making a character with albinism don't realize that it has other symptoms than just lack of melanin, like nystagmus, visual impairment, and photophobia. Decide what your character experiences, to what degree, how frequently, and what do they do (or don't do) to deal with it.

Don't give your character only the most "acceptable" symptoms of their disability and ignore everything else. Example: many writers will omit the topic of incontinence in their para- and tetraplegic characters, even though it's extremely common. Don't shy away from aspects of disability that aren't romanticized.

Don't just... make them abled "because magic". If they're Deaf, don't give them some ability that will make them into an essentially hearing person. Don't give your blind character some "cheat" so that they can see, give them a cane. Don't give an amputee prosthetics that work better than meat limbs. To have a disabled character you need to have a character that's actually disabled. There's no way around it.

Think about complications your character could experience within the story. If your character wears their prosthetic a lot, they might start to experience skin breakdown or pain. Someone who uses a wheelchair a lot has a risk of pressure sores. Glowing and Flickering Fantasy Item might cause problems for someone photophobic or photosensitive. What do they do when that happens, or how do they prevent that from happening?

Look out for comorbidities. It's rare for disabled people to only have one medical condition and nothing else. Disabilities like to show up in pairs. Or dozens.

If relevant, consider mobility aids, assistive devices, and disability aids. Wheelchairs, canes, rollators, braces, AAC, walkers, nasal cannulas, crutches, white canes, feeding tubes, braillers, ostomy bags, insulin pumps, service dogs, trach tubes, hearing aids, orthoses, splints... the list is basically endless, and there's a lot of everyday things that might count as a disability aid as well - even just a hat could be one for someone whose disability requires them to stay out of the sun. Make sure that it's actually based on symptoms, not just your assumptions - most blind people don't wear sunglasses, not all people with SCI use a wheelchair, upper limb prosthetics aren't nearly as useful as you think. Decide which ones your character could have, how often they would use them, and if they switch between different aids.

Basically all of the above aids will have subtypes or variants. There is a lot of options. Does your character use an active manual wheelchair, a powerchair, or a generic hospital wheelchair? Are they using high-, or low-tech AAC? What would be available to them? Does it change over the course of their story, or their life in general?

If relevant, think about what treatment your character might receive. Do they need medication? Physical therapy? Occupational therapy? Orientation and mobility training? Speech therapy? Do they have access to it, and why or why not?

What is your character's support system? Do they have a carer; if yes, then what do they help your character with and what kind of relationship do they have? Is your character happy about it or not at all?

How did their life change after becoming disabled? If your character goes from being an extreme athlete to suddenly being a full-time wheelchair user, it will have an effect - are they going to stop doing sports at all, are they going to just do extreme wheelchair sports now, or are they going to try out wheelchair table tennis instead? Do they know and respect their new limitations? Did they have to get a different job or had to make their house accessible? Do they have support in this transition, or are they on their own - do they wish they had that support?

What about *other* characters? Your character isn't going to be the only disabled person in existence. Do they know other disabled people? Do they have a community? If your character manages their disability with something that's only available to them, what about all the other people with the same disability?

What is the society that your character lives in like? Is the architecture accessible? How do they treat disabled people? Are abled characters knowledgeable about disabilities? How many people speak the local sign language(s)? Are accessible bathrooms common, or does your character have to go home every few hours? Is there access to prosthetists and ocularists, or what do they do when their prosthetic leg or eye requires the routine check-up?

Know the tropes. If a burn survivor character is an evil mask-wearer, if a powerchair user is a constantly rude and ungrateful to everyone villain, if an amputee is a genius mechanic who fixes their own prosthetics, you have A Trope. Not all tropes are made equal; some are actively harmful to real people, while others are just annoying or boring by the nature of having been done to death. During the character creation process, research what tropes might apply and just try to trace your logic. Does your blind character see the future because it's a common superpower in their world, or are you doing the ancient "Blind Seer" trope?

Remember, that not all of the above questions will come up in your writing, but to know which ones won't you need to know the answers to them first. Even if you don't decide to explicitly name your character's condition, you will be aware of what they might function like. You will be able to add more depth to your character if you decide that they have T6 spina bifida, rather than if you made them into an ambiguous wheelchair user with ambiguous symptoms and ambiguous needs. Embrace research as part of your process and your characters will be better representation, sure, but they will also make more sense and seem more like actual people; same with the world that they are a part of.

This post exists to help you establish the basics of your character's disability so that you can do research on your own and answer some of the most common ("what are symptoms of x?") questions by yourself. If you have these things already established, it will also be easier for us to answer any possible questions you might have - e.g. "what would a character with complete high-level paraplegia do in a world where the modern kind of wheelchair has not been invented yet?" is more concise than just "how do I write a character with paralysis?" - I think it's more helpful for askers as well; a vague answer won't be of much help.

I hope that this post is helpful,

mod Sasza

[probablyasocialecologist]

A new paper from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can “result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.” “[A] key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judgement and strengthen their cognitive musculature, leaving them atrophied and unprepared when the exceptions do arise,” the researchers wrote. 

[...]

“The data shows a shift in cognitive effort as knowledge workers increasingly move from task execution to oversight when using GenAI,” the researchers wrote. “Surprisingly, while AI can improve efficiency, it may also reduce critical engagement, particularly in routine or lower-stakes tasks in which users simply rely on AI, raising concerns about long-term reliance and diminished independent problem-solving.” The researchers also found that “users with access to GenAI tools produce a less diverse set of outcomes for the same task, compared to those without. This tendency for convergence reflects a lack of personal, contextualised, critical and reflective judgement of AI output and thus can be interpreted as a deterioration of critical thinking.”

[...]

So, does this mean AI is making us dumb, is inherently bad, and should be abolished to save humanity's collective intelligence from being atrophied? That’s an understandable response to evidence suggesting that AI tools are reducing critical thinking among nurses, teachers, and commodity traders, but the researchers’ perspective is not that simple.

10 February 2025

[joyfulghostskeletonpizza]

we were absolutely forbidden to even use Wikipedia for research on assignments when I was at uni because it was not reliable nor helpful for critical thinking. AI seems like it's even worse for people's critical thinking skills.

atrophied cognition indeed.

One of the common mistakes I see for people relying on "AI" (LLMs and image generators) is that they think the AI they're interacting with is capable of thought and reason. It's not. This is why using AI to write essays or answer questions is a really bad idea because it's not doing so in any meaningful or thoughtful way. All it's doing is producing the statistically most likely expected output to the input.

This is why you can ask ChatGPT "is mayonnaise a palindrome?" and it will respond "No it's not." but then you ask "Are you sure? I think it is" and it will respond "Actually it is! Mayonnaise is spelled the same backward as it is forward"

All it's doing is trying to sound like it's providing a correct answer. It doesn't actually know what a palindrome is even if it has a function capable of checking for palindromes (it doesn't). It's not "Artificial Intelligence" by any meaning of the term, it's just called AI because that's a discipline of programming. It doesn't inherently mean it has intelligence.

So if you use an AI and expect it to make something that's been made with careful thought or consideration, you're gonna get fucked over. It's not even a quality issue. It just can't consistently produce things of value because there's no understanding there. It doesn't "know" because it can't "know".

[nopaintjustpain]

Hey.

Do you ever think part of the reason Georgie stayed by Jon’s bedside through all 6 months of his coma but then abruptly walked out of his life when he woke up is because she was fully expecting to be a caregiver for him during a long, grueling post-coma recovery process?

Do you think part of the reason she was so spooked by him waking up (relatively) unscathed is because she had mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared herself to take him in? That her best case scenario — what she had planned and hoped for — was that he’d wake up with severe cognitive and/or physical deficits, as one would expect from someone who survived an explosion and six months in a coma? That he’d have to re-learn how to walk or talk or eat or hold a spoon on his own? That he would *need* someone, and even if it wasn’t what she wanted for herself or him, she had decided she would step up and be that person for him?

It can be so jarring when you build up a vision of your near future around one assumption, only for that assumption to be completely shattered by reality. Do you think she constructed a future for him in her head, and when he woke up “fine”, she was so startled by the breaking of her expectations that it felt almost like a betrayal? And the sheer uncanny impossibility of him waking up “fine” made her think that her friend was dead after all?

Do you think that after Martin stopped coming around and Georgie found herself alone at Jon’s bedside, she realized she was all he had left in the world? The only one who held onto hope that he would survive in some form? The only one who thought he could wake up, severely disabled by his experiences but free at last? The only one who thought he deserved the chance at a mundane life after all of this, even if that life would look radically different? Do you think she grappled with the reality that if she didn’t step up for him, no one would? Do you think she spent long hours coping with the fact that she was going to have to take on new responsibilities and make new sacrifices for him, but she was willing to do it for an old friend who deserved better than the hand he was dealt? Do you think she mourned her old vision of her future, before she reconstructed that vision around caring for him?

Do you think she started talking to Jon’s doctors about what she could expect if she brought him home after he woke up? What kinds of disabilities he would live with, and what the prognosis was? About his quality of life afterwards? His road to recovery? Do you think she made up her spare bedroom with a severely disabled person in mind, and then started looking into hiring a part time caregiver to come help her make sure Jon got the help (she assumed) he’d need? Do you think she did all kinds of research into brain injuries and their aftermath? Physical therapy for people with severe atrophy? NG tubes for re-feeding severely starved people? Occupational therapists?

Do you think part of the reason she was so upset when he woke up (relatively) unscathed, lucid and talking and breathing on his own, maybe a little physically weak but still much like his old self, is because she had realistic expectations of what his life would look like after his injuries? And seeing him suddenly defy all odds by waking up into a full cognitive and physical recovery — a completely unrealistic hope that she never even considered as part of the realm of possibility — only reinforced the idea that the old Jon was dead, and this new Jon wasn’t safe for her to be around?

Do you think it hurt when she realized she couldn’t bring him home?

I think about that.

[rambles-of-mental-illness]

Neurodiversity

Neurodivergence refers to variations in neurological functioning that diverge from what is considered typical or "neurotypical." While there is no single, universally agreed-upon list, neurodivergent disorders generally include conditions that affect cognition, behavior, perception, or social functioning.

1. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) (controversial as a separate diagnosis)

Asperger’s Syndrome (outdated term, now part of ASD)

2. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD (Predominantly Inattentive Type)

ADHD (Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type)

ADHD (Combined Type)

3. Learning Disabilities & Processing Disorders

Dyslexia (difficulty with reading and language processing)

Dyscalculia (difficulty with math and numerical processing)

Dysgraphia (difficulty with writing and fine motor skills)

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)

Visual Processing Disorder (VPD)

Nonverbal Learning Disability (NVLD)

4. Intellectual Disabilities

Global Developmental Delay

Down Syndrome

Fragile X Syndrome

Williams Syndrome

Prader-Willi Syndrome

5. Communication Disorders

Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder

Speech Sound Disorder

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Selective Mutism

6. Tic Disorders

Tourette Syndrome

Chronic Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder

Provisional Tic Disorder

7. Mental Health Conditions Often Considered Neurodivergent

Schizophrenia Spectrum & Other Psychotic Disorders

Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective Disorder

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Delusional Disorder

Mood Disorders with Neurological Features

Bipolar Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder (long-term cases cause atrophy in brain regions like the hippocampus)

Dysthymia (Persistent Depressive Disorder)

Anxiety & Related Conditions

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) (sometimes considered)

Panic Disorder (sometimes considered)

Trauma-Related Disorders (sometimes included)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (when it significantly alters cognition and sensory processing)

Complex PTSD (CPTSD)

Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder

Personality Disorders (Not all PDs)

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)

Schizotypal Personality Disorder (StPD)

8. Sensory Processing Differences

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) (not formally recognized in DSM-5 but widely acknowledged in neurodivergent communities)

9. Epilepsy & Neurological Conditions (sometimes considered)

Epilepsy

Migraines with Aura

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)

10. Other Conditions Sometimes Considered Neurodivergent

Hyperlexia (advanced reading ability with comprehension difficulties)

Synesthesia (cross-wiring of sensory experiences)

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) (due to high comorbidity with neurodivergence)

Autoimmune Encephalitis (when it affects cognitive function)

Neurodivergence is a broad and evolving concept, with some conditions more widely accepted as neurodivergent than others. The core idea is that neurodivergent individuals experience the world in ways that differ from neurotypical standards, often due to innate neurological differences.

[vague-humanoid]

A new paper from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can “result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.”

“[A] key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judgement and strengthen their cognitive musculature, leaving them atrophied and unprepared when the exceptions do arise,” the researchers wrote. 

[jadeharleyinc]

The "AI Rots Your Brain" Study

"The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking" is a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research Cambridge.

it has been widely reported on as "concluding that AI makes human cognition atrophied and unprepared" (404 media) or as "linking AI usage with a deterioration in critical-thinking skills" (New York Magazine).

is that true? what does the paper actually say, though? it's only 20 pages, so you can check for yourself. otherwise, read on.

the survey's methodology has been... misrepresented, to put it mildly. this paper did not measure actual thinking ability. it surveyed workers who used AI at work, asked questions like "do you usually trust AI outputs? how do you think about them critically? if you can't, what obstacles are stopping you?"

the paper aimed to answer two research questions:

When and how do knowledge workers perceive the enaction of critical thinking when using GenAI? When and why do knowledge workers perceive increased/decreased effort for critical thinking due to GenAI?

pages 14-16 of the study discuss the survey's findings, and what they mean for AI tools, workers, and critical thinking skills. i've summarized these conclusions, point by point, as follows.

confidence and knowledge 1) people who say they trust genAI to be truthful are likely to be the same people who say they exercise less critical thinking about AI outputs. (makes sense.) 2) people who say they have confidence in their work skills are likely to say they are critical of the AI's output, even if they perceive this critical look as requiring extra effort. 3) it's possible that fostering workers' expertise and confidence in their domains will increase their ability to think critically about AI outputs. 4) a worker being confident in their skills at a task is associated with the worker's ability to delegate and guide the task. 5) a worker being unconfident in their skills at a task can rely more on AI, which potentially lowers their critical engagement and independent problem-solving skills. 6) in a nutshell, workers knowledgeable at a task invest more effort in thinking critically while using AI for it; less knowledgeable workers invest less.

the researchers suggest: 7) empowering users to 1. develop their skills, 2. develop a balanced relationship with the AI where it's not either the user or the AI calling all the shots. 8) adding feedback mechanisms to AI tools that help users gauge reliability of AI outputs, so they can know when to trust and when to question. 9) that AI tools let users customize and refine how the output is made, how much AI assistance is provided, depending on confidence and task complexity.

to do this, they see several approaches. potential approach 1: 10) AI tools could underline opportunities for critical thinking, especially for tasks the worker finds unimportant or secondary. 11) for example, AI tools could have systems to proactively interrupt the user and highlight a situation where it may be overlooked that critical thinking is needed. 12) another approach is to allow the user to request critical thinking assistance when they consciously need it.

potential approach 2: 13) increase the motivation to use critical thinking. workers use it less when they think it's not their job, and use it more when aiming to develop their skills. 14) therefore, AI tools could encourage critical thinking thtrough the lens of skill development and professional growth, not arbitrary and sometimes-irrelevant "audits".

potential approach 3: 15) enhance the ability to think critically. workers often refrain from thinking critically when they don't have the skills to fact-check or improve AI's responses. 16) this means learning opportunities: AI providing explanations for its reasoning, suggesting ways the users should refine their knowledge, or offering guided critiques. 17) the AI could help the worker develop specific skills: how to analyze arguments or cross-reference facts against sources. (see: AI as partner in skill development.)

so how is AI impacting critical thinking, specifically? 18) usually critical thinking involves analysis, synthesis and evaluation. using AI tools changes what tasks a worker performs to fulfill these goals. 19) when recalling and understanding, the worker focuses less on gathering information and more verifying it. (less need to find info, more need to verify it.) 20) when applying information, the worker focuses less on solving a problem and more on integrating the AI's solution. ("is this relevant? what parts should i tweak?") 21) when analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating, the worker focuses less on executing the task and more on supervising the task. ("stewardship" more than "collaboration".)

so, to think critically, workers that use AI should be trained: 22) on how to verify information, integrate outputs, and guide the task. 23) on cross-referencing with sources, assessing if AI output is relevant or applicable, and refining their use of AI processes. 24) on maintaining foundational problem-solving and information-gathering skills so they aren't overly reliant on AI.

the researchers point out some limitations of their study: 25) surveyed workers sometimes confuse "the task now takes me less effort" and "i spend less effort on critical thinking". (hey, we don't assess our critical thinking often.) 26) surveyed workers might think less critically when they get an AI output that matches what they expected. that could expect the aforementioned confusion. 27) asking workers to report their confidence at a task produces subjective responses. 28) the survey was conducted solely in english, and aimed only at fluent english speakers. 29) the survey sample biases towards younger, technologically skilled workers who use AI tools at work at least once a week. older and less techy people are underrepresented. 30) this is just a baseline study and long term impact has to be tracked.

i now encourage you to draw your own conclusions.

[underhell69]

Villain type character for my AU, Otis

Also, I should mention that the canon name for the hetaloids in my AU is 'Embodied Nations' so ill be referring to them as EN for short form.

Otis was born about 5,000 years ago, and he had his whole family murdered by Ivan - who went by the name Goliath at the time (due to his immense stature as a Flesh beast): Goliath was looking for a worthy human to fuse with, as he caught word from other flesh beasts the benefit of fusing with a human, but he didn't just simply wanted to find a random human; He wanted to have some fun with it. So, he told his worshippers that the man who kills the most people would be a worthy sacrifice and would spend their afterlife in paradise. One man managed to slaughter his entire village, however, he was forced by Goliath to kill his own family: the man couldn't do it - Goliath urges him, trying to convince him that his family would see the same afterlife paradise as he would. The man attempts to kill, but the cries from his children prevent him. Goliath gets inpatient and obliterates the man’s family right in front of him, then stating that he made up the whole thing about him and his family going to heaven and that he killed all those people for Goliath’s amusement, just for added nonsensical cruelty. Then he fuses with the man.

However, from sheer luck, one child survives of the family - that being Otis. Goliath, now Ivan (Still goes by the name Russia or Russias embodied nation in modern times) in his new human form and mind, has no urge to kill the child. He finds it odd, it is the first time he's never had an urge to kill (not in the way that he inherited the man’s compassion for his child, more so the human baseline cognitive state of not wanting to kill a child), so he lets that kid go roam the tundra. Otis was then eventually found by Pangea’s cult, and then over time he became the high priest, he still believed that the cruelty inflicted by the Flesh beasts/ENs were for a good reason - The memories of Goliath slaughtering his family was very foggy due to his very young age at the time, and viewed Ivan setting him free to the tundra as like. Some divine plan or some bullshit lol. 

But over time Otis and the rest of Pangea's Cult kept being ridiculed and mistreated by the ENs (example: ENs held a human taxidermy contest using the cultists, telling them that sacrifices would go to heaven if they participated) Otis eventually saw the EN’s as the parasites they are, and disbanded from the cult for the new purpose of eliminating the EN’s - believing that if they destroy the ENs, world peace is brought forth, essentially believing all despair, greed, power hungriness, turmoil, war, famine, climate change and the very human sin is caused by humanities' connection with the ENs.

Otis started to study their biology or any weakness they might have had. However, the cult grew smaller and smaller with time, as they lost hope in ever trying to overthrow literal god-like beings and found it easier to simply live under their rule. Otis never gave up; however, his old age was getting the best of him… desperate to continue his work, he found ancient fossilized flesh beasts and started experimenting on himself by injecting small amounts of it into him. Over time, like the process of building venom immunity, the flesh beast material didn't kill him, but in fact made him somewhat immortal. He doesn't have the super strength of an EN nor the super healing, only being able to live forever. He is somewhat like a living mummy, as his skin and organs atrophied over the centuries of injecting the flesh beast material. In modern times, Otis is the only surviving Pangea Cult member, and while the EN’s are MUCH tamer than they are in modern times, he still has the belief that by removing them - the world would be way better off - as well somewhat motivated by revenge against Goliath/Ivan.

Pangea cultist designs - high priest being Otis pre fossil injection design

Bonus comic of Otis capturing Ivan - showcasing ENs only weakness (from non-ENs) is high voltage, which causes them mild paralysis. There was more to the comic where theres an exposition introducing Otis and his motivation, Ivan scoffs at him, finding it amusing at the very least. He's never seen a revolution from humans like this before. However, he slowly grows more concerned as he's unable to break through the restraints, and Otis able to inflict wounds on him due to him using the remains of long dead flesh beasts to make his weapons.

So as I'm working on some actual plot for my little au, I also wanted to share some notes about Matthew/Canada that I dont think ive shared here yet (besides the fic that I drew fanart for which shares the same idea of his angst being an embodied nation/immortal pseudo god) which is that Matthew hates being what he is. He wants to be a normal human. He even larps on college campuses pretending that he is one

so we have Otis, dude who wants to destroy hetaloids.. and we have an hetaloid who wants to be a human.. and is desperate to be one...and could be potentially taken advantage of under the guise of being transformed into a human and not as a research subject to be used to destroy hetaloids... food for thought.

[mortalityplays]

so many people talk about the 'cognitive impact' of LLM usage the way software publishers talk about profits 'lost to piracy'. going to start lamenting my lost piano skills that were ATROPHIED by listening to mp3s instead.