I tend to agree with you, Nate, in that I think that civilization will run into resource constraints or other critical issues way before any of the really bad stuff with AI can happen.
Furthermore, does anyone else have the feeling that Schmachti is taking the claims that the perpetually over-optimistic AI cultists make a little too much at face value? It seems pretty obvious that the whole AI hype is becoming a religious cult, while more and more people in the real world question how much AI can actually deliver on the big promises made by the tech elites.
I mean, don't get me wrong, it makes perfect sense that he and others address & work on the issue, just in case. Precautionary principle and all that, considering worst-case scenarios etc...
But is it just me, or might AI never become as omniscient and powerful as Schmachti paints it to be?
I mean, looking at all the big aspirations the techies had in recent decades, they've actually accomplished VERY Little (compared to the techno-optimists earlier claims) because they ran into biological/physical barriers, due to the fact that they never understood that the important part about the term science-fiction is FICTION, not science. Their childhood dreams of teleporters, flying cars and hyperspace interstellar travel are simply not gonna happen - they're based on fantasy, and we might just as well wait for the dragons to return and save us.
We have all reason to doubt that people will ever accomplish sending people to Mars (with any reasonable chance of survival, that is). No news from Neuralink as well - may it simply be biologically impossible to achieve their goals, because brains are NOT computers and humans are not machines? And the war against aging/death has yet to produce anything meaningful beyond a few rich old dudes that look like they're from plastic and take pills by the handful, right?
AI (and high tech in general) looks more and more like a bubble, as many experts from a variety of fields have recently expressed.
Its environmental impact - regardless of its real-world capabilites - is highly concerning, though, and definitely an issue that needs to be dealt with. Those deluded people think AGI is their Savior, that will herald in a new Golden Age, so they'll try everything in their might to continue their holy work. Millennarian cults emerged during the collapse of all previous civilizations, so the transhumanists, longtermists and the AI crowd is just a modern version of a concept as old as civilization itself: if things get too scary for you to handle, you just invent an imaginary, all-powerful friend that will save you and your friends - if you pray and sacrifice hard enough.
I agree with the diagnosis, but I'm dubious about the probability of the pathways that Daniel describes, even if they are the only credible ones available. Strange times indeed!
Thanks, there's at least 6 hours of listening in these chats with Daniel, I keep having to rewind because my brain can only take normal amounts of information in.
I tend to agree with you, Nate, in that I think that civilization will run into resource constraints or other critical issues way before any of the really bad stuff with AI can happen.
Furthermore, does anyone else have the feeling that Schmachti is taking the claims that the perpetually over-optimistic AI cultists make a little too much at face value? It seems pretty obvious that the whole AI hype is becoming a religious cult, while more and more people in the real world question how much AI can actually deliver on the big promises made by the tech elites.
I mean, don't get me wrong, it makes perfect sense that he and others address & work on the issue, just in case. Precautionary principle and all that, considering worst-case scenarios etc...
But is it just me, or might AI never become as omniscient and powerful as Schmachti paints it to be?
I mean, looking at all the big aspirations the techies had in recent decades, they've actually accomplished VERY Little (compared to the techno-optimists earlier claims) because they ran into biological/physical barriers, due to the fact that they never understood that the important part about the term science-fiction is FICTION, not science. Their childhood dreams of teleporters, flying cars and hyperspace interstellar travel are simply not gonna happen - they're based on fantasy, and we might just as well wait for the dragons to return and save us.
We have all reason to doubt that people will ever accomplish sending people to Mars (with any reasonable chance of survival, that is). No news from Neuralink as well - may it simply be biologically impossible to achieve their goals, because brains are NOT computers and humans are not machines? And the war against aging/death has yet to produce anything meaningful beyond a few rich old dudes that look like they're from plastic and take pills by the handful, right?
AI (and high tech in general) looks more and more like a bubble, as many experts from a variety of fields have recently expressed.
Its environmental impact - regardless of its real-world capabilites - is highly concerning, though, and definitely an issue that needs to be dealt with. Those deluded people think AGI is their Savior, that will herald in a new Golden Age, so they'll try everything in their might to continue their holy work. Millennarian cults emerged during the collapse of all previous civilizations, so the transhumanists, longtermists and the AI crowd is just a modern version of a concept as old as civilization itself: if things get too scary for you to handle, you just invent an imaginary, all-powerful friend that will save you and your friends - if you pray and sacrifice hard enough.
Hi! Long time fan of your show, and of Daniel. Not a fan of AI art! Based on theft, massively wasteful. It sends a really bad signal.
I agree with the diagnosis, but I'm dubious about the probability of the pathways that Daniel describes, even if they are the only credible ones available. Strange times indeed!
Thanks, there's at least 6 hours of listening in these chats with Daniel, I keep having to rewind because my brain can only take normal amounts of information in.