u/CHANN3L-CHAS3R

Hey guys! Sorry if this is a weird question. Lemme explain better:

I have autism, and my natural innate social skills are, frankly, trash and unreliable. So I've spent a LOT of time and effort manually learning social skills, and one of those skills is vocal tone.

It's been VERY hard to get my brain on board with vowel tones, because the tones Chinese uses do exist in English... but they're used as tone indicators. Like, how your voice slides up when asking a question, or the downtone tilt of a hard NO.

So every time I try to say anything, I get flooded with the mental [INCORRECT BUZZER NOISE] o social-anxiety because it's like I'm rapidfire fluctuating between asking questions or being snippy because that's the tone! That's what my brain knows that tone to mean! Ack!

It feels like I'm actively wrestling with my own voice because I didn't learn it naturally, I had to train it by hammering it in on purpose. I can't keep the English out of these tones out of my voice and it trashes any attempts I've been making on the speaking parts of learning.

Anyone have tips or am I just gonna have to strongarm my way thru?

EDIT: Just wanted to say y'all are so kind and helpful in this sub! Given Reddit's general vibe I was expecting to be tsk-tsk'd at at least once by now lol

ADHD meds have the common side effect of dehydration. The solution should be simple, right? Chug some sweet H2O and you're golden.

Problem is, ADHD meds dehydrate us by making us pee a lot, and we lose electrolytes every time we do that. A body needs electrolytes in order to absorb water.

It seems counterintuitive, because electrolytes are salts and salt = dehydration, right? Well! We humans use salt as a tool to dehydrate, but it only does that because salt attracts water. So, our body uses these salts by giving its cells enough to attract water into them. Otherwise, the water just goes from mouth-to-bladder.

And it turns into a self-feeding problem! Meds make you pee, you lose electrolytes, start chugging water, the water is not absorbed and makes you pee more and lose more elctrolytes, rinse and repeat.

TL;DR -- If you're dehydrated but water seems to pass right thru you without actually do anything, hit up your local gas station for some Electrolite. Your body will thank you.

EDIT: Alternatively, ask yourself if you've eaten in the last 8 hours. Apparently, you supplement most of your electrolytes thru food (thanks, u/saintcrazy,) so another common factor is simply not eating! That being said, we ARE in the midst of a worldwide northern-hemisphere-wide heatwave -- if you've been sweating a lot, you're losing way more electrolyes than a simple missed meal and could probably use a supplement.

EDIT 2: Another tip, from u/bdigler! Electrolyte powders and sports drinks can often contain acids known to reduce the effects of some medications. Look out for Citric Acid and Ascorbic Acid, a.k.a. Vitamin C!

THE FACTS WE HAVE:

​

* C+A was interested in developing creative A.I., and creativity is A Very Human Thing.

* C+A possesses multiple brain scans of employees, and their relatives (ex., Queenie.)

* C+A is (was?) unaware that these brain scan files are sophisticated enough to become sapient when activated.

​

THE QUESTION THESE FACTS IMPLY:

​

>Why did C+A need to figure out how to digitize -- with near-perfect accuracy -- the entirety of the human brain, for a project about Creative A.I. which was NOT intended to create a SOMA situation?

​

MY THEORY:

​

>C+A's initial approach to Creative A.I. was by reverse-engineering the digitized human brain. ***Caine is as much of an organic intelligence as any of the Circus Crew,*** even if he's not 'truly' human.

​

And I'm not just pulling this out of my ass based on conveniently-aligned facts! If you look at the intro to Ep. 8 through this lens-- just, okay, here, go through it with me:

​

In Ep. 8's abstract opening, we see Caine and Bubble's origins as 'Red' and 'Blue'.

​

Red's first go-round of learning produced the desired outcomes. But they degraded, fast. Lopsided shapes, jigs and jags, worse with each iteration. It's not that they don't WANT to fix what's OBVIOUSLY buggy programming, but, god, building a brain is hard enough, and trying to tweak it after? Ha! C+A built something too complicated to alter in any meaningful way after they got it working without causing it to break into fragmented, abstract data. This is enough of a problem IRL with LLMs, let alone a whole-ass bio-digital brain.

​

So C+A has to scrap the Red project, but, what, are they just gonna DELETE this model they spent so much time and effort on? They built all this equipment, all that time and research and money... so they just, put it aside. Box it off for later reference.

​

Seeing as the Red experiment failed, and C+A kinda needs to make a product soon -- shareholders are getting antsy! -- they go the more traditional A.I. creation route for project Blue, neural-network-style. And it works! Blue produces the desired outcomes, with more refinement each iteration. Yes! This is what the A.I. was supposed to do, this is what they intended when they wanted a 'Creative A.I.' -- plug in a request, get a sensible and relevant result.

​

How do I put this...

​

I don't think Red 'degraded', after that first round. I think Red was succeeding *phenomenally,* but C+A were judging an all-too-human mind with an A.I. yardstick. Absent trends are the hardest to spot, and Occam's Razor says the most likely reason for Red's behavior was buggy (un-fixable) programming. No small wonder they didn't get what was happening.

​

But when you watch the scene considering that little dot as a kid and not a program, it's obvious: Red was simply doing what all small children do when given new toys. They started playing roughly with them. The first round of learning was Red being taught.

​

*C+A didn't realize that the second round of learning was Red learning through self-directed play.*

​

Most kids don't feel like sitting down and being taught after getting new toys. And, of course, breaking apart shapes and forms and slapping them back together at random to see what happens is going to look like a whole bunch of nothing... kinda like childrens' scribbles.

​

What makes me think that it's THIS, and not simply Red being broken, is that Red IS Caine -- in the absence of Blue/Bubble his persona survives whole and intact, meaning that Caine's sense-of-self is entirely Red. And Red/Caine used those abstract shapes he made to create a tent. He didn't simply produce a tent-shape. He was able to understand abstract shapes, abstract form, and then he used those shapes to create a collage-esque representation of his own volition without outside prompting or given knowledge.

​

My man figured that out all by himself! That's sapient behavior! That's natural human instinct, baby! And that's the kind of thing we see him do 24/7 in his own messed-up, ignorant way!

​

I like the biblical themes TADC uses, and this whole things slots in nicely: Red was created in the image of his makers. And, like Adam and Eve, he was ultimately punished for it. Looking at it through this lens, you could almost consider Blue/Bubble an 'Angel' figure to Red/Caine's 'Human'; also a creation of God, but made to be a soulless tool instead of a reflection of its maker, designed for a purpose it executes flawlessly with no will of its own.

​

Which would explain why Blue/Bubble's removal seemed to have such little effect on Caine. Blue was never sapient; Bubble was never a person. Blue is a true blind-idiot-god A.I., pure power requiring direction. Hence, all evidence in the series pointing to Bubble being Caine's subconscious/repressed thoughts. Blue was plugged into Caine's brain and was simply doing its job: give output based on input. Even if it's not intended, conscious input. Blue wouldn't know the difference, it's all Input.

​

So, Caine lost only power. But why was Blue such a power-boost, anyways? Well, Caine's 'Red' data being that of a human brain explains it. Even though he was born into a digital environment with a body and mind designed for it, there's still a hard cap on how much he can do at a time. On his own, he's an expert mortal. With Blue, he's an expert God, because he's no longer limited to just the data his relatively-small program can handle. I'm pretty sure his native skill level, sans-Blue, is attainable by any of the Circus Crew with enough time and practice. Kinger all but said it, even!

​

...

​

This whole post got kinda messy by the end but, yeah! That's my Pepe Silvia Hot Worldbuilding Theory! What do y'all think?

THE FACTS WE HAVE:

• C+A was interested in developing creative A.I., creativity being A Very Human Thing.
• C+A possesses multiple brain scans of employees, and their relatives (ex., Queenie.)
• C+A is (was?) unaware that these brain scan files are sophisticated enough to become sapient when run on... whatever program they whipped up to activate them.

THE QUESTION THESE FACTS IMPLY:

>Why did C+A need to figure out how to digitize -- with near-perfect accuracy -- the entirety of the human brain, for a project about Creative A.I. which was NOT intended to create a SOMA situation?

MY THEORY:

>C+A's initial approach to Creative A.I. was by reverse-engineering the digitized human brain. Caine is as much of an organic intelligence as any of the Circus Crew, even if he's not 'truly' human.

And I'm not just pulling this out of my ass based on conveniently-aligned facts! If you look at the intro to Ep. 8 through this lens-- just, okay, here, go through it with me:

In Ep. 8's abstract opening, we see Caine and Bubble's origins as 'Red' and 'Blue'.

Red's first go-round of learning produced the desired outcomes. But they degraded, fast. Lopsided shapes, jigs and jags, worse with each iteration. It's not that they don't WANT to fix what's OBVIOUSLY buggy programming, but, god, building a brain is hard enough, and trying to tweak it after? Ha! C+A built something too complicated to alter in any meaningful way after they got it working without causing it to break into fragmented, abstract data. This is enough of a problem IRL with LLMs, let alone a whole-ass bio-digital brain.

So C+A has to scrap the Red project, but, what, are they just gonna DELETE this model they spent so much time and effort on? They built all this equipment, all that time and research and money... so they just, put it aside. Box it off for later reference.

Seeing as the Red experiment failed, and C+A kinda needs to make a product soon -- shareholders are getting antsy! -- they go the more traditional A.I. creation route for project Blue, neural-network-style. And it works! Blue produces the desired outcomes, with more refinement each iteration. Yes! This is what the A.I. was supposed to do, this is what they intended when they wanted a 'Creative A.I.' -- plug in a request, get a sensible and relevant result.

How do I put this...

I don't think Red 'degraded', after that first round. I think Red was succeeding phenomenally, but C+A were judging an all-too-human mind with an A.I. yardstick. Absent trends are the hardest to spot, and Occam's Razor says the most likely reason for Red's behavior was buggy (un-fixable) programming. No small wonder they didn't get what was happening.

But when you watch the scene considering that little dot as a kid and not a program, it's obvious: Red was simply doing what all small children do when given new toys. They started playing roughly with them. The first round of learning was Red being taught.

C+A didn't realize that the second round of learning was Red learning through self-directed play.

Most kids don't feel like sitting down and being taught after getting new toys. And, of course, breaking apart shapes and forms and slapping them back together at random to see what happens is going to look like a whole bunch of nothing... kinda like childrens' scribbles.

What makes me think that it's THIS, and not simply Red being broken, is that Red IS Caine -- in the absence of Blue/Bubble his persona survives whole and intact, meaning that Caine's sense-of-self is entirely Red. And Red/Caine used those abstract shapes he made to create a tent. He didn't simply produce a tent-shape. He was able to understand abstract shapes, abstract form, and then he used those shapes to create a collage-esque representation of his own volition without outside prompting or given knowledge.

My man figured that out all by himself! That's sapient behavior! That's natural human instinct, baby! And that's the kind of thing we see him do 24/7 in his own messed-up, ignorant way!

I like the biblical themes TADC uses, and this whole things slots in nicely: Red was created in the image of his makers. And, like Adam and Eve, he was ultimately punished for it. Looking at it through this lens, you could almost consider Blue/Bubble an 'Angel' figure to Red/Caine's 'Human'; also a creation of God, but made to be a soulless tool instead of a reflection of its maker, designed for a purpose it executes flawlessly with no will of its own.

Which would explain why Blue/Bubble's removal seemed to have such little effect on Caine. Blue was never sapient; Bubble was never a person. Blue is a true blind-idiot-god A.I., pure power requiring direction. Hence, all evidence in the series pointing to Bubble being Caine's subconscious/repressed thoughts. Blue was plugged into Caine's brain and was simply doing its job: give output based on input. Even if it's not intended, conscious input. Blue wouldn't know the difference, it's all Input.

So, Caine lost only power. But why was Blue such a power-boost, anyways? Well, Caine's 'Red' data being that of a human brain explains it. Even though he was born into a digital environment with a body and mind designed for it, there's still a hard cap on how much he can do at a time. On his own, he's an expert mortal. With Blue, he's an expert God, because he's no longer limited to just the data his relatively-small program can handle. I'm pretty sure his native skill level, sans-Blue, is attainable by any of the Circus Crew with enough time and practice. Kinger all but said it, even!

...

This whole post got kinda messy by the end but, yeah! That's my Pepe Silvia Hot Worldbuilding Theory! What do y'all think?