PSA: Winter 2025-'26 Mental Wellness and Care

[OriginalContentGuy]

With the solstice upon us in three days I feel it prudent for a missive to some of the presumably young(er) players that have found the forums recently, and a reminder, maybe an update for everyone else.

Winter is a season. It is a time as well as a symbol. As the sunlight waxes and as more people are relatively isolated indoors during the cold months, it can be especially stressful for both introverts and extroverts.

We are creatures that are hardwired for love and connection. The community of players here speak volumes to this: it's not pixels that makes Project 1999 great -- the people, staff and players do (including our absentee landlord Rogean who I heard now lives on a plantation in Hawaii growing beer).

Isolation is stressful and it's important to remember that the internet is not a substitute for real connection with real people (in real life, i.e. not on a computer).

Now for the update part:

It's current year where gigawatts of real-time computing power is spent curating what you see on your screens in low latency. We've most all read reports by now on people having psychotic breaks and requiring hospitalization from using ChatGPT and other LLMs. I opine that any app that promotes doom-scrolling including YouTube and Instagram and Tiktok are all probably starting to integrate if they aren't already in full operational production of real-time machine learning models able to suggest custom-tailored titles to random videos as clickbait and for monetary reasons.

You've most all seen an "AI" model hallucinate and start outputting nonsense by now I assume. What happens if an unstable and hallucinating algorithm meets an isolated and lonely person alone in the winter and starts suggesting uncanny or wierd things (and the person doesn't realize a computer is doing this)?

Check in on your friends and family this Winter. If you are someone you know is in distress please consult your local emergency services or reach our to a care provider in your area for help.

Spring will come (and so reliably you can set your clock to it). Be well and take suitable care of each other and (y)ourselves. Here's to a brand new 2026 -- and beyond. Long live Project 1999.

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