The seventh installment of Dominic Chen’s series Fermentation and Generation: The “Beast Paths” — An Alternative to Information Technology, titled “Hong Kong Residents’ Experiences Using Pickles”, has been published in the web magazine Plain living, high thinking.
The AI journaling tool Pickles, exhibited in Hong Kong, is an attempt to support self-understanding by having AI send questions and responses one week after the writer has written their diary entries. Participants described their diaries as “a place to talk with oneself” and “a place where one can be honest,” and shared how Pickles helped them organize their emotions and memories. At the same time, the project also revealed potential risks, such as emotional dependence on AI, misinterpretation of one’s mental state, and the dangers of anthropomorphizing AI. Rather than presenting AI as something that offers instant healing, the article suggests that it can become a tool for fermenting thought by maintaining a certain distance and time lag.
Seventh article:
