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“As we have learned, scientific advancement eventually happens if the laws of physics do not prevent it.” The dinosaurs probably disagree. Eventually they migh

“As we have learned, scientific advancement eventually happens if the laws of physics do not prevent it.” The dinosaurs probably disagree. Eventually they might have developed tools and then technology but then planet-scale comet destruction and/or volcanoes got in the way. We however don’t need a cataclysm to delay or indefinitely defer scientific progress...we have various self-inflicted ways to impede progress: religion, dictators, racism, consumerism, spending money on bombs vs. education, denying climate change, tolerating genocide, electing crazy people to run nuclear armed nations, taxing graduate students, the McRib, etc.

kelnos 9y ago
Sure. Altman even points that out, to a less-fleshed-out degree (emphasis mine): > More important than that, unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman AI is going to happen, genetic enhancement is going to happen, and brain-machine interfaces are going to happen. I think it's a really good point. As long as the laws of physics don't prevent something, and we can't find a clever workaround, progress tends to march on forward. Really the only thing that could stop that is some sort of earth-wide cataclysm, whether it's natural or human-made. I think you overestimate a lot of those human-made things, though. The countries of the world are very interconnected these days, to be sure, but I'm optimistic that religion, dictators, etc. can't stamp out all progress; I believe there will always be places in the world where this kind of progress is at least tolerated, if not actively embraced and encouraged.
- fusiongyro 9y ago
  "Unless <highly probable event>, <extremely unlikely event> is going to happen" might be truthful but it isn't what Sam is really trying to say. And there is a big gap between stalls like the McRib and epoch-defining asteroid collisions.
  - rficcaglia 9y ago
    I was defineitely going for humor...but in all seriousness, if you take the McRib as just 1 sku in a billion+ that humans produce that are both addictive by design, inflict direct physiological harm, and also contribute to climate change and planet scale pollution which are very much epoch-defining phenomena, yes you could very easily rank the McRib as equally threatening to all human life as a very large asteroid. That said, the real dominant species on this planet, tardigrades, could likely survive even a McRib-induced climate catastrophe. So if tardigrades merge with AI, we are totally and completely fubard!

kelnos 9y ago

Sure. Altman even points that out, to a less-fleshed-out degree (emphasis mine): > More important than that, unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman AI is going to happen, genetic enhancement is going to happen, and brain-machine interfaces are going to happen. I think it's a really good point. As long as the laws of physics don't prevent something, and we can't find a clever workaround, progress tends to march on forward. Really the only thing that could stop that is some sort of earth-wide cataclysm, whether it's natural or human-made. I think you overestimate a lot of those human-made things, though. The countries of the world are very interconnected these days, to be sure, but I'm optimistic that religion, dictators, etc. can't stamp out all progress; I believe there will always be places in the world where this kind of progress is at least tolerated, if not actively embraced and encouraged.

fusiongyro 9y ago
"Unless <highly probable event>, <extremely unlikely event> is going to happen" might be truthful but it isn't what Sam is really trying to say. And there is a big gap between stalls like the McRib and epoch-defining asteroid collisions.
- rficcaglia 9y ago
  I was defineitely going for humor...but in all seriousness, if you take the McRib as just 1 sku in a billion+ that humans produce that are both addictive by design, inflict direct physiological harm, and also contribute to climate change and planet scale pollution which are very much epoch-defining phenomena, yes you could very easily rank the McRib as equally threatening to all human life as a very large asteroid. That said, the real dominant species on this planet, tardigrades, could likely survive even a McRib-induced climate catastrophe. So if tardigrades merge with AI, we are totally and completely fubard!