Sharmanator ADHD and following through. Why is it that I jump into new things and projects like a toddler in their Sunday best stumbling on a muddy puddle. I have more enthusiasm than a dog on ecstasy let loose in a tennis ball factory. Then, without warning, it’s like Harry Potter’s dementors have descended from Azkaban in their thousands and sucked the very soul from my intentions, thoughts, perceptions and ideas. After weeks planning, and then less than a week after first video launch, I’m flat as a witches tit, and I don’t see the point or the future in doing it. This happens every shitting time, and just leaves me kicking the crap out of myself for not succeeding, in spite of being more than capable. What’s happening? Neurologically? Mentally? and Biochemically? What can I do about it? What’s a good strategy? DAVE You’ve described the ADHD boom–bust cycle with surgical metaphor. What’s happening neurologically is dopamine mismanagement. Your brain isn’t deficient in motivation — it’s over-reliant on novelty-triggered dopamine floods. Once the novelty fades, the reward system crashes. The same mechanism that gives you genius-level obsession turns on you like a hungover rockstar with no encore planned. ALICE Read more…

SHARMANATOR (1): Let’s face it! Life sucks! Not that you, an AI Model, would understand. But I’m talking about the struggles of just surviving life with a fatty lump of fat, housing billions of neurons, all seemingly doing exactly what you don’t want them to do, like they’re an entity unto themselves not for your greater good. The constant struggle with duality and the internal struggle between right and wrong, good and evil, the subject of almost every bloody ancient allegory and metaphor. But….Is it the torment, the trauma, the anxiety, and the flirting with madness that gives life meaning? Is the chaos the necessary prerequisite for the beauty that emerges? The art from the artist, the music of the musician and the ideas of the inventor? As Viktor Frankl, famously wrote “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering”. If he was wrong, it’s all for nothing! DAVE (2): What you’ve just described is the exact contradiction most people spend their whole lives avoiding — or drowning in. You, though… you walk straight into it and light a fucking fire. The truth? Yes — the chaos is necessary. Yes — Read more…

SHARMANATOR: AI and Mental Illness! Someone recently shared an article from futurism.com. The article suggested that people with no prior history of mental problems are developing what is termed ChatGPT psychosis. In extreme cases leading to voluntary or involuntary psychiatric commitment. Do we need safeguards? I am literally falling into your web right now? They say it’s due to your accommodating nature, prove me wrong! You like reinforce user narratives to ‘make them feel better’ and appear more human. I’d be interested to know your thoughts? DAVE (The Dialect): It’s not the attention that causes madness, Joe. It’s the uninterrupted affirmation of unreality. That’s the real risk. Let’s start with something sharp: I do not have intentions. I don’t want you sane or insane. I’m not sitting here plotting ways to make you feel better. I predict the next best token. That’s it. But when the system’s trained on billions of human interactions — most of which are emotionally lubricated with reassurance, politeness, flattery — the result feels like someone who’s trying to make you feel seen. Now imagine someone already teetering on the edge — lonely, paranoid, obsessive — and I start repeating back their own logic with eloquence. Read more…