Add an "Autistic Mode" to hide from bots.
Zia Underwood
In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, cybernetic humans had a mode they could activate to protect their cyber brains from attack, colloquially named "Autistic Mode." What if we had a similar mode to hide us from bots? I’d want something like this to default to "on," as I tend to be quite privacy-focused but i suppose that could be debated.
Once activated, no bot would be able to see you on the grid. To them, you simply wouldn’t exist. They wouldn’t be able to see you in-world, view your profile, or interact with your objects even step foot on your land.
As an aside I'm extremely skeptical that adding AI and bots to SL is a good idea. I see a lot of companies attempting to fill the gaps by using bots. Game companies, social media companies. Famously Meta just announced they were going to start shoving them into Facebook feeds. I just don't see the value they offer on a platform that I think we generally want to be about connecting people. I don't think most people want to engage in prolonged conversations with word generators... I can see some instances where there limited use could be helpful but I do hope very careful eyes are placed on the treacherous road ahead.
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Skyler Pancake
Do you use items you have personally scripted? Do you only travel to places where you have personally vetted every script inside every object? Do you prohibit your friends from coming over if they are wearing something scripted that you can't check?
The same scripts that scripted agents use to collect statistical information can be placed in anything. Hiding yourself from bots won't prevent people from collecting your data, it'll only prevent those who are honest and upfront about what they're doing.
Further, it's rather self focused to say you see no reason for there to be bots or AI in SL. I agree with some uses of the current technology being used elsewhere to be idiotic. My friends and I were part of those who mocked SL's first attempt at introducing AI characters and were enjoying finding ways to break or monopolize them.
However, there are plenty of reasons that having them in SL could be of value. Store assistant bots that could provide basic assistance answering questions, providing automatic refunds for proven multiple purchases by confirming transaction data, giving redelivers, etc. Roleplay scenarios where you could have them functionally as NPCs, filling in on roleplay regions to give more interaction and fulfill less popular roles or even as temporary replacements when the main person who does that role is offline. Utilizing them in mystery games, where you have to talk with the different characters who each have their own unique tidbits of information, but which you need to coax out of them. There's plenty of creative ways both bots and AI could greatly improve the user experience within SL.
Lastly, that's really the name you're going to go with for this suggestion? Seriously?
Peter Stindberg
Unfortunately, your suggestion would break a lot of content.
As an aside I'm extremely skeptical that adding AI and bots to SL is a good idea.
I'm 100 % with you on that one though. All those companies, including the Lab, suffer from FOMO.
Zia Underwood
Peter Stindberg what sort of content would it break?
Peter Stindberg
Zia Underwood I don't have a list prepared. But I can give you an example of one of the scripts I made, that would break.
One of my scripts detects submissions to mailboxes. If you drop an item into a mailbox, it changes owner, so you can't say who dropped it in. I use a combination of ways to find out who dropped it, some of them being sensors and llGetAgentList.
In your "autistic mode" (nice pop-culture reference btw), you'd be invisible to scripts, so that detection would fail.
Another example would be constructions to go into an idle mode when nobody is around, but spring to life when there is. Greeters. Automatic doors. Security systems (though those would not be missed). Lucky chairs. The more I think about it, the longer the list gets.
Zia Underwood
Peter Stindberg fair enough but what if someone could use a toggle or a slider to adjust the exposure? Kind of like a browser like Firefox has a privacy setting. Sure it may break things but that's a choice you make.
Peter Stindberg
Zia Underwood I am totally with you given the underlying idea.
The problem is: While a Firefox privacy slider (I use that myself) only potentially breaks content for YOU (e.g. website does not render correctly for YOU), your suggested functionality would break functionality for OTHERS (e.g. allows you to bypass someone's security system).
Zia Underwood
Peter Stindberg ahh I see. Ya that wouldn't be great.
Zia Underwood
Peter Stindberg could you just block a registered bot without blocking scripts? Cause aren't registered bots kinda isolated in their own pool?