this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
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    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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Just to make it clear: I do not believe this and I am convinced good old human greed is what's really driving the ai and data-center insanity. Also, LLMs are not and will never become AGI.

Having said that: if an artificial super-intelligence were to emerge, building more data-centers could well be one of it's primary goals. Since it wouln't be concerned with consequences for the environment or humanity, it could pursue this at any cost, with only speed and scale in mind. Convincing financial markets and business elites of the necessity of such a buildout would be the ideal way of achieving results. In this scenario, fighting this buildout by any means would be the only sensible response and of utmost importance.

It's a somewhat funny, somewhat depressing thought for me and I literally had it in the shower. Surely I can't be the first to come up with this, but I also can't remember having read it before.

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

something something Roko's Basilisk?

[–] jve@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Hah yeah just what I was thinking!

For the uninitiated:

Roko's basilisk is a thought experiment which states that there could be an artificial superintelligence in the future that, while otherwise benevolent, would punish anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development, in order to encourage that advancement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk

Apologies to those of you who I just exposed to this information hazard

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Thought experiment is a little generous. It's atheists inventing the concept of God and spooking themselves about it. It makes a lot of assumptions about this hypothetical super computer that don't make much sense if you're not in a rationalist cult.