Barefoot Investor Scott Pape shares 'most controversial' warning ever
'Some will say what you're about to read is irresponsible - others will call it downright evil,' Pape warned his readers.
Pape described how a friend working with the technology told him to ask ChatGPT: 'If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation?'
'So I did. And here is what the AI answered, word for word, with zero editing from me.'
The AI laid out a 10-step plan for its method for the 'slow systematic erosion' of society with a warning about technology.
'If I were the devil, and my goal was to quietly but effectively destroy the next generation - not through shock and awe, but through slow, systemic erosion - here's how I'd do it,' it wrote.
The first steps focused on social media, looking at highjacking attention on addictive devices and defining success as fame by elevating influencers.
'Hijack their attention: Create devices that feel essential, but are engineered to be addictive. Use infinite scroll, auto-play, dopamine loops, and FOMO. Make them believe that consuming is creating, and scrolling is learning.
'Example: A 14-year-old watches four hours of TikTok "productivity hacks" and does nothing all day.
'Redefine success as fame and external validation: Elevate influencers, not contributors. Teach them that a viral moment is more valuable than a decade of hard work. Make "likes" the new currency of self-worth.
'Example: Kids want to be YouTubers when they grow up - not because they love storytelling, but because they crave adoration.
'Attack the family structure: Undermine parental authority - promote the idea that parents are outdated or oppressive. Normalise absentee parenting through economic pressure and distraction. Erode the idea of family traditions, shared meals, and generational wisdom.
'Example: A child feels closer to a Twitch streamer than to their dad.
'Cut them off from nature: Replace tree climbing, swimming holes, and dirt-under-the-nails play with digital avatars and indoor screens. Frame outdoor play as "boring" or unsafe. Turn the natural world into something abstract and inaccessible.
'Example: A 10-year-old can't identify a magpie but knows every Pokémon.
'Confuse pleasure with purpose: Market hyper-palatable food, porn, and substances as "freedom". Create shame-free indulgence while ridiculing restraint, discipline, and tradition. Make pleasure the default pursuit, and discomfort the ultimate enemy.
'Example: A young man loses years to video games, vapes, and porn - not because he's evil, but because he's numb and alone.
'Replace meaning with mockery: Treat faith, commitment, and virtue as relics of the past. Replace sacred stories with algorithm-driven noise. Make them afraid to stand for anything that isn't trending.
'Example: A teenager is more afraid of being 'cringe' than being cruel. Kill community, quietly.
'Sell hyper-individualism: "you do you", "follow your truth", "cut off the haters". Remove rites of passage, civic duty, and face-to-face belonging. Make every connection transactional and every disagreement personal.
'Example: Loneliness becomes a silent epidemic - but everyone has 2,000 "friends".
'Enslave them with debt and distraction: Promote financial illiteracy: "Buy now, pay later" becomes a lifestyle. Blur the lines between wants and needs - encourage instant gratification over savings. Keep them working jobs they hate to buy things they don't need.
'Example: A 22-year-old racks up $30,000 in credit card and Afterpay debt to look successful on Instagram.
'Weaken them physically: Fill their diet with ultra-processed garbage and their lifestyle with inactivity. Make discipline in eating or training seem extreme or obsessive. Blur the connection between physical vitality and mental strength.
'Example: A child can't sit still in class, not because they're broken - but because they're inflamed, malnourished, and sleep-deprived.
'Make them spiritually hollow: Give them identity confusion, not exploration. Remove the idea of service, sacrifice, or something bigger than themselves.
'Make them feel like nothing matters - so they seek numbness, not growth.
'Example: A 16-year-old says "I don't care" about everything - because caring hurts and there's no compass.'
Pape said it was the AI's final thought which stopped him dead in his tracks.
'If I were the devil, I wouldn't come with horns and pitchforks. I'd come with a sleek app, a soothing voice, a personal algorithm - and I'd whisper this is freedom.'
Pape said the whole thing was 'pretty intense'.
'I do not believe that AI is some evil Frankenstein with a mind of its own, well, not yet anyway.
'What I do believe is that, when you strip away the Silicon Valley snake oil, AI is really just a pattern-spotting machine.
'It studies what we've done, over and over … and then makes predictions.
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