“Hang on, let me overthink this”
It’s funny though, because as humans we also consider a huge number of factors when someone approaches us and says “hi” - but we are so speedy about being context aware we don’t even notice how much we ‘overthink’
In a fraction of a second we are thinking “Who is this person? Where do I know them from? Is this a personal thing or a professional thing? What does their tone and body language tell me about the interaction? What is their motivation? Are they a threat? Do they want something transactional from me, or is this purely just a pleasantry?”
We’re good at that.
Hi! Autistic person here.
DeepSeek’s exposed chain of thought process pretty much is exactly what its like any time I am having a consequential, or potentially consequential in person, realtime social interaction with a neurotypical.
Its all a very explicit, conscious, often overwhelming thought process, that often takes a draining amount of effort, and often takes much longer than it does for neurotypicals.
Neurotypicals basically do not experience this consciously, it is usually almost entirely subconscious.
Neurotypicals actually often make more errors in their version of this process, but they don’t think they do.
Yes, there are studies that back that up.
we are so speedy about being context aware we don’t even notice
I think the difference isn’t that we’re fast at being context-aware but rather that we’re slow at noticing.
Edit: To be fair to our brains, these tasks can generally be handled by subsystems operating outside of conscious awareness, and they’re only brought to our conscious attention when those subsystems fail to answer confidently.
This is how that goes for me:
Subconscious: This short greeting wasn’t covered by my training. (You have been training me in social situations, right? Anxiety will double-check and get back to you before you fall asleep.) I’ve sent instructions to fake a smile and stand by for your directions.
Conscious: If you don’t know what to do, how the hell am I supposed to know what to do?
Hypothalamus: Run! RUN!
“Check it out guys, I tricked this rock into having an existential crisis.”
Looks, sees a piece of silicon sucking down two countries worth of nuclear power.
Meanwhile, a greasy lump of gel can have a much more severe crisis for only 20 watts.
