“passive consumers of unthought thoughts” is an apt way of putting it. With AI, it’s so easy not to think and have it think for you, even in things that you should really want to think about because it’s entertaining.

For example, I’ve been re-watching Game of Thrones, and I wondered how things would have changed if Joffrey had a father figure in his life that wasn’t Robert, say a teacher in swordsmanship. I could spend a lot of time thinking about how Cersei would see this teacher as a rival and want him dead, whether Robert would protect that teacher because he’s making Joffrey into more of a ‘man’, whether Joffrey being trained as a swordsman would make him braver, and even if everything happened as written up to the Blackwater, would Joffrey find his courage and go out into battle, and ultimately get killed by one of Stannis’ soldiers? What would happen to Sansa?

Or… I could just ask ChatGPT, get a quick answer, and forget all about it.