Brendan Kelly

And it's those automatic thoughts that shape so much of our self-image.

We do.

And what we need to do is to try to do less of it.

It is part of being human.

And social media very much amplifies it.

It gives opportunity to compare faster and more and to more glamorous type people than was ever possible.

So we do need an awareness of this tendency to compare ourselves to other people, even when the comparisons are utterly ridiculous, because they will still have an emotional impact.

So when you say our thoughts are not ourselves, that is true.

But as you know, our habitual thinking patterns shape how we feel about ourselves.

But we can change them.

I mean, earlier you described me as being optimistic about the negative effects of technology and so forth.

And I do think the negative effects are overstated.

And I think we understand... There's a but coming, though.

No, no, there isn't.

We understate the positive things.

To put this another way, to really reduce this to basics, every morning on this planet, Ray, eight billion people wake up and we fundamentally want one thing.

We want human connection.

And that will remain the case.

When AI, as everyone fears it will, blurs the boundary between real and unreal in ways that we struggle to distinguish, we will work day and night to distinguish.

We will still reach for real human contact.