Focus Group question: Version 1 or 2? Neither?

My comment below is based on this quote from this(https://steveskrovan.substack.com/p/im-not-a-robot) blog post:

Steve(a semi retired TV star comedian):”How is it we let these contraptions correct our grammar, our spelling; we let them finish our sentences, and tell us we took a wrong turn, but when a spouse does it, we want to throw a toaster across the room?”

Our ancestors ate shit and died. Then one day someone was born with a strange genetic mutation that caused the first ever emotion of disgust. This mutant was disgusted by poop and didn’t eat it and didn’t die. Everyone else did. Thus this ancestor spawned the entire human race of “disgusting people.” Anxiety scientists tell us that the evolution of threat reactions far predate disgust reactions. Thus our creative brains react to our exaggerations of threats by exaggerating power such as Teddy Bears, Santa Claus, Jesus, Obama, and Trump. Up to 60% of anxious people are cured by placebo. All of the above placebos are innocuous except for one that is insidious.

Mom’s replace baby’s filthy thumb with a sterile pacifier but when that pacifier is lost the filthy thumb goes right back into the baby’s mouth. Thus an insidious placebo can replace an innocuous placebo instantly. Please note that religions may be a subset of the class of all placebos and the class of all placebo’s may be protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

A recent Democratic White House recommended an inoculation to anxiety:”Do one thing everyday that scares you”--Eleanor Roosevelt realized that Americans have an anxiety problem even if they don’t have anxiety due to the rapid conversion of 60% of Americans’ placebos suddenly becoming insidious (such as 60% of Americans suddenly being healed by fascism or MAGA). No American takes the White House recommended inoculation because Purdue Pharma convinced all Americans just to keep popping their Valium anxiety pills which Americans did by the billions annually. Purdue Pharma then used the proceeds to launch the opioid crisis killing about a million Americans.

As screwed up as is humans’ anxiety/threat reactions… humans’ manifestations of disgust, hate, anger, demonization, defensiveness and or rage have not had eons to “mutate amazing solutions” such as placebos. Humans’ emotion of disgust only had millennia to evolve a more mature solution such as placebos, and have thus spawned cataclysmic epidemics of immaturity such as their anger being misdirected at the wrong target:

· 70% of Americans angry at Osama bin laden supported attacking Iraq.

· 77 million Americans angry at the government believed Trump’s claim that undocumented Americans would give up 20 years of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness to vote for a Democrat.

A federal study found 89% of American psychologists shirk legally required science. The power they have over us has corrupted them. Even the first few minutes of their therapy sessions would never be FDA approved. However a robot therapist could be FDA approved and would never have the unevolved defensive reactions that our therapists have when we tell them they are full of crap. Thus Steve’s proposal of couple counseling by toaster would be better served if the toaster was a robot therapist.

Here is the AI version:”This observation from Steve Skrovan’s blog highlights a fascinating tension in human psychology. To understand why we “trust toasters more than spouses,” we have to look at the evolution of disgust and the evolution of threat response.

Evolutionary biology suggests our ancestors survived because a genetic mutation introduced the emotion of disgust, steering our ancestors away from pathogens. While threat reactions are even older, our creative brains often manage modern anxieties by projecting power onto placebos—ranging from teddy bears to political figures like Obama or Trump. Research indicates that up to 60% of anxious individuals respond to placebos. However, these can be insidious; much like a sterile pacifier being replaced by a filthy thumb, a helpful placebo can instantly shift into something harmful.

This psychological fragility explains why many Americans eschew Eleanor Roosevelt’s advice to “do one thing every day that scares you” in favor of pharmaceutical shortcuts. Purdue Pharma capitalized on this, selling billions of Valium pills before launching the opioid crisis that has claimed nearly a million lives.

Because our reactions to disgust and rage have had only millennia—not eons—to evolve, we remain prone to “cataclysmic epidemics of immaturity” and misdirected anger. For example:

· 70% of Americans angry at Osama bin Laden supported attacking Iraq.

· 77 million Americans believed claims that undocumented individuals would risk decades of liberty just to cast a single vote.

This lack of evolution extends to our institutions. A federal study found that 89% of American psychologists shirk legally required science, often reacting defensively when challenged. Because the first minutes of a standard therapy session would likely never pass FDA approval, Steve’s humorous suggestion of “counseling by toaster” actually carries weight. A robot therapist would be FDA-approved and, unlike a human, would lack the unevolved defensive reactions that make us want to throw the toaster in the first place.

TDRL: Beware flaws, especially when over abundant disappearing anxiety morphs into misdirected anger! (&Quacks are blind?)