this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- The entire showerthought must be in the title
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- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
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The rise of generative AI is the death of picture or video evidence.
No one to date knows what the real consequences of this will be. Call me crazy, but maybe we shouldn't be allowing people to work on such "advances" if they don't have the humanities/social sciences background to understand the consequences.
And the written word, as useful information is buried under mountains of generated trash.
Dark Ages II
Consequences be damned! We have quarterly earnings reports to worry about!
Hint: photo and video evidence has only been a thing for less than 200 years when photos and videos were invented. So if humanity managed without it before that, it can do so again.
You will be happy to learn that the American court system still favors eyewitness testimony over any other kind of evidence, despite it being countlessly proven how unreliable eyewitness testimony actually is.
Much the same was said about the printing press, common people with the power to publish and distribute ideas would be the end of civilisation. It wasn't, humanity has always lived fast and loose with its power for invention outstripping its ability to manage it. Comes from the selective pressures on us, find a way to survive now and worry about the long term effects later. Of course it will probably catch up with us one day.
The printing press was a tremendously disruptive technology. I'd say it supports what I'm saying, not the other way around. It has the benefit of several hundred years of unconnected people.
I'll add: it's disingenuous to think that generative AI and the printing press do the same things. The latter enhanced the spread of information. The former enhances the spread of misinformation. Such is the nature of LLMs.
The printing press enhanced the spread of misinformation, as did video, and the internet after it. Hello propaganda!
LLMs don't allow for the spread of information like the printing press, video, and the internet because they just vomit stuff out and are completely unreliable because they are wrong even when it isn't intentional.