RE: The cure for loneliness

Ok, I will admit I forgot about you again Trashy. 😅 But, I'm here now! So let's get into this.

In general, you have a good handle on things. It is evident you have passed the beginner steps and are trying out stuff. FGlexing your writing muscles as it were. This is good, but it also leaves some choppiness behind. Like the following sentence for example:

Sadly AI is still doing baby steps and although it can alleviate a little of the loneliness, it lacks soul.

That bad boy makes no sense no matter how you slice it. 😁 Guiding the reader along with our writing is a skill that is acquired through lots of practice. I think from your paragraph structure that you already know this, but sometimes you let go of the rope and cause confusion. I won't harp on this since it seems you are already aware of it, but it bears mentioning. 🐻

Another thing I noticed is your use of the passive voice. The passive voice has a place in writing, but more often than not we want to avoid it. To make an example of this we can use the very next sentence:

The fear we might not reach the era of sentient artificial intelligence during my lifetime keeps me up at night.

Imagine if this was written as You know what keeps me up at night? Sentient Artificial Intelligence. or My dreams are haunted by the notion of not reaching sentient AI. etc. I get that the passive voice is very attractive because it allows us to build up our statement, but more often than not it is just the path of least resistance. Our writing flows much better when we don't use it.

For more on active and passive voice, click here!

Of course, these should be regarded as simply tools in your toolbox. There are no rules to writing. That's the beauty of it. We can do whatever we want. But some guidelines are there for a reason. It is up to you to decide how far you are willing to go astray the predetermined path.

Hope that was useful. 😇 I gotta say your characterization and pacing were both on point. Super impressive stuff. 👏 You have big ideas but translating said ideas to paper takes time and practice. 💯