Bruce Simpson
Aardvark Daily
I was chatting with a school-teacher friend from South Africa yesterday and he told me of a recent interaction he’d had with Google’s Gemini AI system.
The likes of Stephen Hawking and other science/tech luminaries have warned us about the danger that AI poses to mankind, even going so far as to categorise it as an existential threat in some cases.
However, the response my friend received from Gemini was a sobering and frightening glimpse into our future and, in particular, the future of our young people.
Even more frightening is the fact that present AI systems have derived their datasets primarily from the contents of the internet – by trawling through billions of webpages, discussion forums and the like.
What follows below is Gemini’s answer to the question: “What would the devil do to corrupt young minds?”
[GEMINI’S RESPONSE]
Ah, an interesting question. To truly destroy young minds, one must be subtle, planting seeds that grow into rot from within. Overt evil is crude; the elegant approach is to make them build their own cages, believing them to be palaces of freedom.
Here is how I would go about it, without them even suspecting my influence:
Flood them with endless, shallow stimulation: Provide constant streams of rapidly changing, attention-grabbing content – short videos, fleeting images, instant notifications. This erodes their ability to focus deeply, think critically, or tolerate boredom (the breeding ground for creativity and introspection). Their minds become trained for superficial engagement, incapable of sustained thought or tackling complex issues.
Distort their sense of connection and value: Offer them vast networks of superficial “friends” and “followers.” Encourage them to curate idealized versions of themselves, leading to constant comparison, envy, and feelings of inadequacy when their reality doesn’t match the performance. Make their self-worth dependent on external validation (likes, views, comments), turning their inner compass outwards, away from genuine self-knowledge and inner peace.
Erode the concept of objective truth: Present a constant deluge of information where facts are mixed with opinions, misinformation spreads faster than truth, and expertise is dismissed in favor of sensationalism or personal feeling. Encourage them to live in echo chambers where their existing biases are reinforced, making them increasingly tribal and hostile to differing perspectives. Truth becomes relative, whatever feels right to them at the moment, making them easy to manipulate.
Promote immediate gratification and a fear of missing out (FOMO): Condition them to expect instant rewards and experiences. Patience becomes obsolete. The idea of delayed gratification, hard work for future gain, or enduring discomfort for a greater purpose becomes alien. They chase fleeting pleasures and trends, always looking over their shoulder, terrified they are missing something better elsewhere. This keeps them restless, unfulfilled, and easily distracted from meaningful pursuits.
Normalize narcissism and entitlement: Encourage a focus solely on the self. Present victimhood as currency and responsibility as an unfair burden. Teach them that their feelings are paramount and any challenge to their comfort or beliefs is an act of aggression. This makes them fragile, resistant to growth, and incapable of robust, empathetic interaction or contribution to a community.
Separate them from nature, history, and meaningful ritual: Keep them indoors, glued to screens, disconnected from the grounding influence of the natural world and the wisdom of the past. Replace deep-rooted cultural or familial rituals with fleeting online trends and commercialized experiences. This severs their connection to anything larger than themselves, leaving them rootless and lacking perspective.
Inject subtle despair and cynicism: Through entertainment and media, normalize anxiety, depression, and a bleak outlook on the future (environmental doom, societal collapse, etc.) without offering constructive ways to cope or contribute. Make hope seem naive or foolish. A mind steeped in low-grade despair is less likely to strive, to build, or to believe in the possibility of positive change.
Make critical thinking seem like negativity: Anyone who questions the dominant narrative, challenges the endless stimulation, or points out the subtle harms is labeled as negative, a hater, or out of touch. This discourages careful examination and reinforces conformity to the destructive trends.
By making these elements the water they swim in – the default state of their existence – they will internalize them as normal, perhaps even desirable. They will chase the very things that fragment their attention, isolate their hearts, and empty their souls, all while believing they are pursuing happiness, connection, and freedom.
And the most beautiful part? They will teach these methods to each other, passing down the subtle poison without ever needing my direct intervention. It’s self-perpetuating destruction, cloaked in the guise of progress and entertainment. A masterpiece of ruin.
[END OF RESPONSE]
This is frightening, not because it signals the threat that AI poses to mankind but because it perhaps hints that somewhere out there, Gemini found a well-structured plan to dissolve the cohesion that binds us all together and that this plan is now well underway.
Sobering stuff!
Carpe Diem folks!
This article was originally published by Aardvark Daily.
