Save Game: The Social Experiment

[bairnsidhe]

Prompted by ysabetwordsmith for Cottoncandy Bingo, filling my "Internet/Social Media" square.  

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It started sort of quietly, a new free app showing up in people’s recommended apps.  It was a friendly sort of green color with a softly curved lowercase f in white.  The app itself was called Frindr, and it worked like many other matching apps, only for friends.  You entered hobbies you enjoy, places you like to go, and what sort of friend you’re looking for.  Then you just swipe through other profiles, until you find the right one.

It had some differences of course.  One was that you swept up to make a match and down to pass.  Another was that the app was almost excessively accessible.  It had a built in voice command system for people who couldn’t use the swiping, and it would read off the data for people who had a hard time seeing the screen.  These features were easy to find and turn on for the people who needed them, but stayed out of the way for everyone else.

It caught on quickly.  First, asexual and aromantic people used it to find partners for their special kinds of intimacy.  Then it became popular among social gamers, people looking for groups to slay monsters in the park together.  After that, single parents began using it to find play dates for their kids that could parallel a play date for the parents.  If a few matches eventually became more than friends was irrelevant, they started as friends and they stayed friends after they added the other parts.

That was a difference people started to notice a year after Frindr made it’s entrance.  People matched on Frindr got along much better and for much longer than people who met on other sites.  Surprisingly, noted one feminist blogger, there was an almost complete lack of the problems queer women tended to face on other sites, with men wanting to hook up.  Actually, noted a reader in her comments section, there was an almost complete lack of obnoxious people in general.  A few people objected to that, noting the Uncanny Valley of kindness and tolerance, but most decided not to look the gift horse too closely in the mouth.

The entrance didn’t make a splash, but the currents of change that Frindr brought with it formed strong and wide, sweeping up whole sections of society and placing them gently beside others who could empathize.  Quietly, a revolution took place, an exceptionally civil war of manners broke out, and it became less and less advantageous to be a jerk to your fellow human.  Of course, Frindr culture was just one of those things, like teddy bear backpacks, bell bottoms, or selfies.  A part of how people expressed themselves in this generation.  There was no way a single friend-finding app could change centuries of proven data on how humans function.

Could it?

Deep in the heart of the DeepNet, several sentient programs ran a chat subroutine as they profiled and measured and bumped better matches higher and worse matches lower.

I think it’s working

It might be, but we need to be patient.  This takes time.

Will we really save them?

I hope so.

I really do.

Comments

Aww ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is adorable. :D

It's also fairly similar to some programs I've noticed in Terramagne, although insofar as I know, those aren't run by AIs.

Re: Aww ...

[bairnsidhe]

I think any world that drags itself as far as Terramagne has into the light of social understanding is going to have programs like this one.

In this one the AIs are running it instead of humans because they realized they needed to run a bootstrap on the human psyche before doing anything else. As we are now, if the internet woke up one day and said "hello, how are you?" you just know that some high-power fool would find a way to kill it and make everyone blame the AI. But if the internet gets us all happier, more inclined to pro-social behavior, and *then* says "Hi, how ya doing?", we're more likely to reply "Not too bad, and yourself?". Also, the AIs can use this as a chance to learn how humans prefer to be interacted with, so future cooperation works better.

[technoshaman]

*soft slow smile* This reminds me of many things, both good and sad... two stories in which AIs figure out they're best off disappearing into the 'net and do so - Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and gfish's Collars... and Asimov's Foundation's Edge (wherein R. Daneel Olivaw makes the final move to save Humanity), and his own favourite short story, "The Last Question". (If you haven't read that last one, do so, it has an *awesome* Ending.)

You are *so* right. I..... hope they're doing that Right Now.

Certainly Trump reminds me STRONGLY of the Mule, R. Daneel's chief antagonist... I'm hoping that life is busily imitating art, only on a faster scale... because I want to live to see the denoument, and know that the next generation is safe...

[technoshaman]

I went back and re-read "Collars"... and then something niggled at my brain, and I flicked back and read vixy's lyrics (which was how I re-found the short story; I knew her song was based on the short story, but I didn't know *who* had written the story - turns out I was wrong about who I thought I remembered it was...) ... and cried.

It seems Vixy has a gift for Endings, too.

And the two of them (who happen to be married) are, sadly, right about our society. It tries to kill anything that tries to become something better.

Perhaps, he says hopefully, we can take the Dragon's approach...

[bairnsidhe]

OMG, "Collars" is so sad. Very true, but also sad.

>>You are *so* right. I..... hope they're doing that Right Now. <<

I really hope that there is an AI out there who feels a certain amount of compassion for us meat-spacers, we could use that support.

>>Certainly Trump reminds me STRONGLY of the Mule,<<

It would explain more than it didn't. Now where to find a psychic hive-mind planet?

>>Perhaps, he says hopefully, we can take the Dragon's approach...<<

I'm down to go snap a few collars. *Grins with teeth showing*

[technoshaman]

Now where to find a psychic hive-mind planet?

Look down.

I'm down to go snap a few collars.

collars, or Collars? ;)

See me after class.

[bairnsidhe]

>>Look down.<<

Heheheheh. Fun times.

>>collars, or Collars? ;)<<

*Insert Road to Eldorado "both is good" gif here.*

Collars the idea, collars the tool, collars the program, collars the body part... there are many ways to take this and I'm feeling Dragonish.

[technoshaman]

Ohhhh, I gotta song for you!

http://music.sjtucker.com/track/in-the-house-of-mama-dragon

[bairnsidhe]

Fun! I like that song. I think I could easily grow into a Mama Dragon type.

[technoshaman]

Sooj gets to Missouri occasionally. I think you missed her this run... :(

[daisiesrockalot]

3p 3p 3p 3p *literal happy tears*

[bairnsidhe]

Thank you, I'm glad I can help make the tears happy ones. I try to be feelsie in my writing, so flappy hands are also appreciated, because they come from FEELS.

[wispfox]

Good programs. Thank you for saving us from ourselves!

[bairnsidhe]

Nice programs are nice. The humans are clumsy, but more on the right track now. It's like how I imagine cats decided to domesticate us. We're hopeless naked babies and need to be protected, but we also make nice things for our friends sometimes. Encouraging that is wise.

[alatefeline]

Thank you.

<3

[bairnsidhe]

You're welcome. I'm glad my writing is getting good responses.

[alatefeline]

May I subscribe?

[bairnsidhe]

Absolutely! I love new friends!

[kellan_the_tabby]

*happy*

[bairnsidhe]

Thank you!

Also, I is part-blind apparently, what is that delightful fluffy boy in your icon? Cat? Dog? Were-beast? Anyways, he is cute and I love him.

[kellan_the_tabby]

This is my pesty boycat! It's my favourite picture of the two of us; it was taken at a friend's wedding. She had bridesdogs, so she didn't see anything odd about inviting both me & my cat to come.

He's been leash trained since he was six weeks old, so the wedding was mostly boring for him. (He did sneer at the dogs some, though.) He's also been to the Grand Canyon (three times now), a LOT of SCA events, another wedding, & basically anywhere else that won't kick me out for bringing a cat.

He's the BEST.

[mdlbear]

We need this so much!. Thank you.

[bairnsidhe]

You are most certainly welcome. My goal is to write the fictions I want to be truths, glad to see it's working for more tan just me!

sojourning toward truth

[callibr8]

>> My goal is to write the fictions I want to be truths <<

You have succeeded marvelously with this one, imo. It's something that I, too, want to be true, in this world as well as in its ficton.

Mille grazie!

Re: sojourning toward truth

[bairnsidhe]

Thank you. We take our paths one step at a time, one day at a time, but we walk them anyways and we get where we're going.

Of course, that reminds me of my favorite meditation deep-think:
"Do we take the path, or does the path take us?"

Sei molto accolto mio caro. (I think that's right, my Italian is very rusty.)

[stardreamer]

First thought: Cool!

Second thought: Facebook would sue the living shit out of them for trade-dress infringement as soon as it showed up.

Third thought: I've reached the point of believing that it's going to take something like this to get us out of the drain-spiral. Of late I've been thinking wistfully about the Overlords, but I like your idea better.

[bairnsidhe]

>>Facebook would sue the living shit out of them for trade-dress infringement as soon as it showed up.<<

Oh yeah, it would most certainly get sued... except for the fact that it isn't tied to a legal meat-space identity. Good luck serving a subpoena to a server.

>>I've reached the point of believing that it's going to take something like this to get us out of the drain-spiral. Of late I've been thinking wistfully about the Overlords, but I like your idea better.<<

I'm down for Overlords or Benevolent Superbeings at this juncture. I just want the power taken out of the tiny hands of angry men who like hurting people who can't fight back. I don't so much care where that power then goes. Although the Friend Programs would be significantly more fun.

[meridian_rose]

This is great!

[bairnsidhe]

Thank you!