We're not going to survive,

Are we?

AI. Not what I was looking for, but close enough.

This fine morning I learn that a sixty-year-old gentleman got hisself wrapped around the axle regarding table salt in his diet.

So — as apparently ones does — he asked an on-line AI¹ what one should replace sodium chloride with. The AI allegedly responded that obviously one should replace sodium chloride with sodium bromide.

And he did.

Three months of sodium bromide exposure later he was admitted to hospital — no doubt a shock to many — with auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoia, fatigue, insomnia, ataxia², excessive thirst, and other classic symptoms of bromism³. Probably because the bromine levels in his blood were around 1,700 milligrams per litre, when the reference level for a healthy adult is no higher than 7.3 milligrams per litre.

Three weeks of a psych hold⁴, IV fluids, and anti-pyschotic meds later he was released.

I suspect I know what happened. Sodium bromide can replace sodium chloride in many things. Chemical reactions in laboratories. Cleaning agents. That sort of thing. Not, you know … your steak. And the AI scanned through its database and returned the most popular answer, which this alleged functioning adult decided was just what he needed.

Sigh.

We are becoming an increasingly stupid society. An educational system geared towards passing standardized tests (stressing rote, rather than reasoning); followed by a university system that prioritises “what to think” over “how to think”; and then topped off by a pervasive social media that is purposely designed to drive emotion at the expense of reason is handicapping the intellect of entire generations.

After Ozzy died, I started noticing this lovely tribute allegedly done by George Strait regarding Ozzy. Lovely enough that scores of my contacts on social media reposted it — it came across my email again this morning, matter of fact.

The write-up of this tribute mentions a video clip as proof — yet none of the links in the write-up go to any George Strait videos; and a check of YouTube never reveals any George Strait tribute to Ozzy.

It was a 30 second check on my part to find out that this was bushwa. That 30 second check that anyone can do hasn’t stopped it from going around the Internet about 3 times since the first time I saw it.

Last year, some dacoit on TikTok posted a “life hack” regarding “free money”. According to this little chucklehead, all you needed to do was write yourself a cheque, deposit said cheque, then hie yourself to the ATM and withdraw money you didn’t have!

If you’re not terminally gullible⁵, there are obvious flaws in this “life hack”. This did not, however, stop a large number of people from using this “advice” to commit fraud⁶. And most of them are completely stunned that they’re going to have to give the money back.

While this level of gullibility isn’t new — see “Ship High In Transport”, “Fornication Under Consent of King”, “Common Law Rule of Thumb”, and other bushwa false etymologies that people STILL bloody well believe — social media⁷ has exacerbated it to levels that, quite frankly, have me worried.

I’m not sure that — absent some severe correction — society is going to come out of this stampede towards the Greatest Common Dumb in any sort of intact fashion.

Grr.

Ian

1. Allegedly ChatGPT.

2. “Lack of muscle co-ordination.“

3. a/k/a “Chronic Bromide Poisoning”.

4. See: Paranoia and hallucinations, above.

5. Did you know that the word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary?

6. This “life hack” is better known as “check kiting”. If you need to know more, check your State’s Penal Code and Federal law.

7. I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of those pretty memes and lists citing alleged “historical facts” are complete and utter horse-puckey, yet they keep getting passed around.