Google DeepMind philosopher Henry Shevlin argues AI-generated images of empty indoor waterparks act as a psychological 'cognitive exploit

@dioscuri Maybe just exclusive to millennials? Anyone older/younger have thoughts?

@dioscuri If you want to really understand the backrooms, read Bardo Thodol, aka Book of the Dead, aka “liberation through hearing in liminal states”. Listen to “Boom Biddy Bye Bye” by Cypress Hill, a song simultaneously about being killed as adult and being a baby. That’s the backrooms.

@dioscuri I've had dreams about this shit, wtf

@dioscuri Made one. Added a clown for good measure.

@dioscuri >devoid of people >eerie sense

waterparks, offices, etc, are the perfect place to accentuate this, helps find that uncanny valley by tricking your expecations

@dioscuri I’ll give it a shot. The water with no windows — brain identifies drowning risk.

As for the pastel colors, the brain identifies something is off. This sort of water/plumbing exists only in a dark sewer setting, but the pastels add color which is uncanny.

@dioscuri That doesn’t seem like the best pole placement…

@dioscuri the water is also too shallow, some of the slides come out of holes too small for humans, the emptiness, the narrow passageways are more sewer-like, and actually the shallowness is kinda sewer-like as well. This is basically a sewer done up in pastel with slides.

@dioscuri liminal spaces, backrooms type shit

@dioscuri It's just 80's and 90's aesthetics with a cool filter. We all grew up going to waterparks so there's the subconscious nostalgia. A lot of "liminal" stuff is just nostalgia for an era that will never exist again.

@dioscuri I think is specific to a set of people remember a time visiting the pubic pool or a public bath, passing through the shower area, hearing the splashing of the pool behind the corridor leading from the wash room that always had this type of tile work, smelling the chlorine

@dioscuri It goes deeper....

@dioscuri vaporwave aesthetic (not sure why that is so pleasing, that itself could use a breakdown), pools/slides lots of great memories for most, lastly the no-windows, a sense of mystery, exploring a vast underground system that yet is still safe and fun bc rubber duckies

@dioscuri I'm impressed with some of the renderings of liminal space horror. It triggers feelings of claustrophobia and hopelessness, just like the abandoned mall / resort / amusement park genre. Also, things like Simon Stålenhag's "The Electric State". Concentrated alienation.

@dioscuri Gives me ‘Backrooms’ vibes

@dioscuri Idk but mix a collage of that with this and boy does it do something to you

https://youtu.be/zEAIrnr7SBU?si=u0z9B8-Tgk5FqbMD

@dioscuri Hallways flooding is a problem, normal rooms flooded usually causes concern. But in this image what should be an emergency is now coded as normal. The pool motif is telling us this is okay, but out past experiences are screaming emergency. That dissonance is the feeling.

@dioscuri How would you know, before posting it, if you found something that generalizes vs. unintentionally revealing something about your own brain?

(All this does for me is trigger an extremely strong recollection of chlorine smell and humidity.)

@dioscuri Anyone else suspect that these and other “liminal” videos like The Backrooms are being put out online to discredit an actual video recording of something that looks like that, that hasn’t yet been released to the public?

@dioscuri It is similar to things that exist but don’t actually. It sits in an uncanny valley of something that possible and familiar, but never was. Like a manifestation of déjà vu. It hits a nostalgic feeling while being eerily empty.