The parallel with boredom that is revealed in the article is apt. Boredom and loneliness are like physical pain. Today we have extinguishers for all three of them. Computer games, LLMs, aspirine.
If we want to up the effectiveness level of the painkiller to that of morphine, we need a prescription, for good reasons: Pain is a (quite heartless but effective) solution for survival provided by evolution. So are boredom and loneliness as explained in the article!
I'm not against computer games and virtual psychologist per se but there is a big concern:
For games and LLMs there's no such prescription-based regulation possible and the consumed dose is virtually unlimited.
If we want to up the effectiveness level of the painkiller to that of morphine, we need a prescription, for good reasons: Pain is a (quite heartless but effective) solution for survival provided by evolution. So are boredom and loneliness as explained in the article!
I'm not against computer games and virtual psychologist per se but there is a big concern: For games and LLMs there's no such prescription-based regulation possible and the consumed dose is virtually unlimited.