Ironic-Process-Theory

“Try to relax” is a paradox with a precise psychological mechanism. So is the traversable wormhole: the geometry you need to cross spacetime closes the moment you try to use it. The grandfather paradox, Wegner’s ironic monitoring process, and Rick Sanchez’s nihilism problem all share the same deep structure — and understanding that structure is more interesting than any of the individual cases.

AI companions promise to address the loneliness epidemic. Daniel Wegner’s ironic process theory predicts they will fail under exactly the conditions where people need them most — and recent data from MIT and OpenAI suggest the prediction is correct.