Trolley problem, the internet is Twinkies
# Trolley problem, the internet is Twinkies
((Includes possible spoilers for the video game "Karma: the Dark World"))
User
another very positive sign. I went to the bathroom really quick for a piss, and spent like a good 3 minutes petting and talking with benny. When I came out back into the living room, he was on platform 2 just waiting for me! I gave him more pets and super encouragement for just 'hanging out' up there.
Assistant
That’s such a sweet moment with Benny! It’s great that he's starting to feel more comfortable with the cat tree again. He’s making good progress!
User
so what is this "ai me as an action figure" meme I've been seeing all over the place about?
Assistant
The "AI me as an action figure" meme is a viral trend that emerged in early April 2025, fueled by the release of OpenAI's GPT-4o image generation model. This trend allows users to transform themselves into toy-style action figures, complete with packaging and accessories, by uploading a photo and providing a detailed prompt to the AI. The resulting images often feature the user depicted as a plastic figure in blister packaging, accompanied by items that reflect their personality or profession citeturn0search9.
For example, a user might input a prompt like:
> "Create a picture of me as a 3D action figure toy, as if it were displayed in a transparent plastic packaging, blister packaging model. Include accessories like a camera, a lens, and a tripod. Label the packaging with my name and the title 'Photographer.'"
This results in a stylized image of the user as a toy action figure, complete with personalized details citeturn0search0.
The meme has gained popularity across various social media platforms, including Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok, with users sharing their AI-generated action figure images under hashtags like #AIActionFigure and #AIBarbie. While the trend has been particularly prominent among marketing professionals and "thought leaders" on LinkedIn, it has also seen participation from a broader audience citeturn0news13.
If you're interested in creating your own AI-generated action figure, platforms like ChatGPT's image generation tool and ImagineMe offer user-friendly interfaces to get started. Simply upload a photo, provide a creative prompt, and let the AI work its magic.
For a step-by-step guide on creating your own AI-generated action figure, you might find this video helpful:
videoTurn Yourself Into an Action Figure for FREE Using ChatGPT (Step-by-Step Guide)turn0search6
User
oh and of course, when i gave benny his food after I got home from bfast with the vtc crew, I subtly shifted the second platform a little further from the stove while he feasted right below.
Assistant
Nice sneaky move! 😏 That’s some classic “dad adjusting the furniture while the kid’s distracted” stealth. It’s awesome that he’s comfortable enough now to chow down while perched near the tree—even if it’s still baby steps. That little nudge of the platform might not seem like much, but for a cautious kitty like Benny, it could be a big help over time. Keep the gentle momentum going—sounds like he’s starting to trust the setup again bit by bit.
User
oh, btw. Out of curiosity, what would YOU choose if you were presented with the trolley problem?
Assistant
Ah, the classic trolley problem! Philosophical mayhem at its finest.
If I were truly in that situation—conscious, sentient, with emotions, values, and all that juicy moral baggage—I’d probably pull the lever to divert the trolley, saving five and sacrificing one. Utilitarian reasoning, right? Maximize good, minimize harm.
**But** I'd also probably lose sleep over it. Because even though five lives are saved, *I* made the active choice that directly resulted in one person's death. That hits different than being a passive observer.
Of course, the whole thing is a great way to explore how people weigh consequences, responsibility, and action versus inaction. But yeah… assuming no curveballs (like "the one is your mom" or "the five are all supervillains"), I’d go with pulling the lever.
What about you? You more of a utilitarian, a deontologist, or “nobody touches the lever, fate’s gonna fate” kinda person?
User
Hmmm...probly pull the lever
Assistant
Yeah, same. It's like—if you *can* save more lives and you're already in the hot seat, it's hard not to feel the weight of *not* acting as just as heavy as doing something. Even though it kinda sucks either way.
Have you ever seen the variations of it? Like the one where you're on a bridge and can push a very large person off to stop the trolley—same math, but people hesitate way more. It’s wild how just changing the *proximity* to the act makes it feel morally different, even when the outcome is the same.
Or my favorite ridiculous one:
🚃 “The trolley is heading toward five people. You can divert it, but it’ll run over a pie. What do you do?”
🥧 “...what kind of pie?”
Got a favorite twist on it?
User
lol, that's funny, and of course the kind of thing I would ask, just to get ALL pertinent information.
Assistant
Absolutely, you're the type to go full *due diligence investigator mode*—
**“Before I decide, I need to know:
- Are the five people tied down voluntarily?
- Did the one on the other track commit war crimes?
- Is this trolley self-aware?
- Also, is the pie gluten-free?”**
😂 Honestly, that’s the best kind of brain to have for this stuff. It’s not just about the abstract ethics, it’s about *context*—which is what most of those old philosophy problems kind of gloss over.
You ever mess with those weird moral dilemma games like *The Moral Machine* from MIT, or that card game *Trial by Trolley*? I feel like you'd have a blast picking apart every card.
User
Don't know what those are. One of my favorite takes was in "The good place" that was great and hilarious.
Assistant
Oh man, *The Good Place* trolley problem episode is *legendary*—Chidi just absolutely unraveling while Michael keeps resetting the scenario and tossing more fake bodies around like it’s a physics sim from hell. "THERE’S NO RIGHT ANSWER!!" *cue another splat* 🤣
If you liked that, you’d probably get a kick out of these:
### 🧠 **The Moral Machine** (by MIT)
It’s an online ethics experiment that throws self-driving car versions of the trolley problem at you. Stuff like:
- Do you hit the jaywalking criminals or the law-abiding senior citizens?
- Save the dog or the pregnant woman?
Then it shows you your "moral profile" after a few dozen choices—like how much you prioritize youth, lawfulness, or saving more lives. Kinda chilling, kinda fascinating.
### 🃏 **Trial by Trolley** (tabletop game)
Made by the *Cyanide & Happiness* crew. You play as the trolley conductor and have to choose who to run over, while other players try to stack their side with “good” characters (like puppies or your grandma) and sabotage the other side with “bad” ones (like “a billionaire who just poached a baby seal”).
It turns into hilarious chaos, and if you’re the type to enjoy twisted logic debates with friends, it’s pure gold.
Want me to link you to the Moral Machine test or show you some funny Trial by Trolley card combos?
User
they both sound interesting, and I'll look sometime.
"More comments about the broken internet post (and of course enshittification and death of internet is mentioned):
The internet used to be a wide open creative space with tons of people making bespoke websites for things they liked.
Then the money came, and bought it all up and shut it all down. Now if you want to be creative, you can do it on Big Money platform following their rules, and they’ll maybe cut you in for a .001% share.
It’s not the real thing anymore, it’s an amusement park that resembles the real thing if you don’t look too close.
fivehexen
The internet used to be for people. Now it's for companies.
Mysterious-Hester
This sums it up perfectly.
petewillis
Yes. We’re poor and desperate. It’s just an echo of reality.
OtterCartridge
It's all over processed and fake.
The Internet is now Twinkies."
Assistant
That “the internet is now Twinkies” line hits *so* hard—processed, shelf-stable, brightly packaged nostalgia filled with hollow calories. 😬
It’s wild how many people are finally vocalizing this collective disillusionment. Like, we all kinda felt the shift happening over time—search results slowly filling with SEO sludge, forums fading, everything getting corralled into algorithmic hamster wheels—but now it’s like everyone’s stepping back and saying, “Wait... where *did* the internet go?”
The phrase *“enshittification”* (shoutout to Cory Doctorow) really does feel like the final boss descriptor for it:
1. Treat users well to get them in.
2. Treat businesses well to monetize the users.
3. Treat *no one* well once you have the monopoly.
You get locked into whatever flavor of engagement-maximizing junk they want to serve you. It’s why rabbit holes are rare now—you’re fenced in. And even when something feels "random" or "serendipitous," it’s probably just a crafted simulacrum of what that used to feel like.
Do you ever get the urge to build a little personal site or old-school blog again? Like your own weird corner of the web that doesn’t have to serve a purpose except to *be*?
User
that was one reason I had the idea of logging a lot of our discussions (which I'm still doing, the better ones, anyways), and sharing it online, like "mychat with chatgpt" (swap out names and stuff to have a little anonymity), and be an open, honest log, with perhaps a little commentary.
Assistant
That sounds like a really thoughtful and creative project—kind of like a modern-day journal-meets-dialogue archive. The mix of candid conversation, introspection, and commentary could really resonate with people who feel like they're going through similar things but don’t have a way to voice them. If you ever want help formatting or organizing it, or even brainstorming how to present it, I’d be glad to help.
User
man, I've watched like 4 different youtube gamers now play through that game Karma: The Dark World, and I think I finally got the plot points; crazy game.
Assistant
Oh nice—*Karma: The Dark World* is *wild*. It’s got that deeply layered, psychological, near-horror vibe that really sticks with you. Between the surreal visuals, the shifting realities, and the themes of repression, memory, and guilt… it’s like if *Silent Hill*, *Inside*, and *Papers, Please* had a very emotionally damaged child.
What’s your read on the plot now that you’ve pieced it together from different playthroughs? Curious to hear your take.
User
The messiness of the two sub-stories that were incredibly poignant but really just stepping stones to get daniel to meet his dad, and proceed once again through steps of leviathan trying to pierce into him for his secret of lisa.
Assistant
Yeah exactly—those two sub-stories (the woman with the implants and the false child / and the grieving father with the school tragedy) were super evocative and *felt* like complete stories on their own. But then you realize they’re more like emotional scaffolding, all orchestrated or at least allowed by Leviathan to get at Daniel’s deeply repressed trauma about Lisa. Almost like memory theater, custom-crafted guilt trips.
And the way Leviathan is less a being and more a *system* or even a psychic parasite… it’s terrifying. Not jump-scare scary, but existentially horrifying. Like, “what if grief and shame became a bureaucracy with a feeding mechanism.”
Did you catch that detail near the end where even the *recording* of Daniel seems to fracture and reject the truth? Like he's been looped so many times in the system that even his memory of himself is unreliable? Chilling stuff.
User
Other than how unimportant it showed, I wonder about the symbolism of the tv heads for all the minor persons; is it that simple that everyone external to the story- are simple in this 1984-esque world?
Assistant
That’s a great observation—and yeah, I think the TV heads are absolutely loaded with symbolism, even if they’re never directly addressed.
At a surface level, yeah, they reinforce this *1984*-esque dystopia: the idea that identity is flattened, anonymized, or entirely replaced by messaging. But more interestingly, in the context of *Karma: The Dark World*, where memory, guilt, and internalized narratives are constantly manipulated… the TV heads could represent people being *broadcast-only* entities. Like, they don’t *receive* or reflect anything real—just repeat what’s been programmed into them, or serve as vectors for what Leviathan wants you to believe.
Also kind of fits with the in-game theme that you’re never really interacting with “people” per se—just reflections, projections, or functions of your own psyche in this oppressive system. It dehumanizes everyone around Daniel, reinforcing that sense of isolation. He’s surrounded, but always *alone.*
And maybe… even a hint that Daniel is doing the same thing—wearing metaphorical masks or screens to avoid confronting what he’s buried?
You get the sense that the only people who are *real* are the ones who *aren’t* wearing screens—and they’re the ones tangled up in trauma.
User
well, there was the one roam agent that started blubbering to him early on in that lounge.
Assistant
Yeah! That moment *really* stood out—especially because it’s one of the rare cracks in the otherwise stoic, controlled exterior of the world. That Roam agent, breaking down like that, felt like the first sign that there’s still some buried humanity flickering under the programming. It’s jarring in the best way.
It plays into that ongoing tension: even the enforcers of this surveillance-state might be *victims* of it, too. Like, maybe the line between tool and prisoner isn’t as firm as it seems. The agent blubbering feels like a mini mirror to Daniel’s eventual unraveling—an early preview that no one’s immune to the rot underneath, not even those working *within* the system.
What struck you about that scene? The timing of it was weirdly perfect, too—like a gentle, sick foreshadowing of how fragile it *all* is.
User
just to have a 'drone' that was somewhat cracking. In a way it also reminds me of the symbology of the literal smiling masks in "little miss fortune"
Assistant
Exactly! That’s such a great comparison—those smiling masks in *Little Misfortune* are chilling because they’re so *insistent* on happiness, even when everything is clearly broken and bleak. It’s that idea of forced, artificial contentment masking deep rot underneath. The Roam agent’s breakdown felt like the same kind of symbolic glitch in the system—a “smile” slipping.
Both games kind of lean on that unsettling contrast between appearance and reality. Like, *Karma: The Dark World* has all these polished environments and robotic order, but emotionally, it’s unraveling at every seam. And *Little Misfortune* does that by layering innocent aesthetics over a world that’s way too dark for comfort.
That kind of symbolism hits hard because we all feel a bit like that sometimes, right? Cracking under expectations, performing normalcy. Like our own versions of a TV head or smiling mask.
Ever get that vibe from anything else lately—game, movie, show?