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I disagree, though im not surprised to see this sentiment iterated here on HN. I think we've already started to see the beginning of diminishing returns on our

I disagree, though im not surprised to see this sentiment iterated here on HN. I think we've already started to see the beginning of diminishing returns on our software investments. I agree that we haven't in any way reached peak deployment of productive, intelligent software in the world, but even once we get there the robots still need to actuate in the physical world. Jointly, I think the sheer amount of investment thrown at pure software ventures in the past 20 years has certainly colored our perception of their potential agency, since financial output is only a fuzzy indicator of economic good. If general AI was on the horizon, I might be able to give this attitude the benefit of the doubt, but we cant even rigorously prove that it's possible at this juncture. The largest deployments of the latest generation of software acumen are probably social media, and I hope we've learned that that's anything but a panacea.

nl 6y ago
It was only 2020 that people outside the software industry started using video conference as more than a novelty. It seems surprising that people think software is close to done (and even if it was, it doesn't invalidate the supposition). > robots still need to actuate in the physical world I suspect they might need a little bit of software written. More people work on apps for the iPhone than worked building the iPhone.
parksy 6y ago
Social media and mass data analytics are just tips of the iceberg in terms of the impact these types of technology can have on society (for better or worse) From these beginnings we have seen a rise in mass groups of people organising behaviours in cohesion even despite the rudimentary interface of keyboard, camera and screen, and going out on a bit of a limb viewed from above it operates like a group brain or gestalt entity. In that view we've seen the birth in recent decades a form of aggregate intelligence that hasn't existed before in history except perhaps crude and 1-way through newspapers and television propaganda. One can imagine a platform using real time analytics, more deeply integrated into people's thinking and behaviours, that can be set to more productive goals than targeted content, advertising, and disinformation, and that may be driven less by central authority and more by the will of the collective, as weird as that sounds I can't see how it's not a possible future. Again for better or worse I don't think we've seen the end of what we call "social media" and its ilk, and I think despite efforts to control it, there is a good chance for some upset to the status quo as further iterations of the technologies become more ingrained and capable and exert greater influence on the various forces and tensions in the world. Or not, who knows, weird times we're living in.

nl 6y ago

It was only 2020 that people outside the software industry started using video conference as more than a novelty. It seems surprising that people think software is close to done (and even if it was, it doesn't invalidate the supposition). > robots still need to actuate in the physical world I suspect they might need a little bit of software written. More people work on apps for the iPhone than worked building the iPhone.

parksy 6y ago

Social media and mass data analytics are just tips of the iceberg in terms of the impact these types of technology can have on society (for better or worse) From these beginnings we have seen a rise in mass groups of people organising behaviours in cohesion even despite the rudimentary interface of keyboard, camera and screen, and going out on a bit of a limb viewed from above it operates like a group brain or gestalt entity. In that view we've seen the birth in recent decades a form of aggregate intelligence that hasn't existed before in history except perhaps crude and 1-way through newspapers and television propaganda. One can imagine a platform using real time analytics, more deeply integrated into people's thinking and behaviours, that can be set to more productive goals than targeted content, advertising, and disinformation, and that may be driven less by central authority and more by the will of the collective, as weird as that sounds I can't see how it's not a possible future. Again for better or worse I don't think we've seen the end of what we call "social media" and its ilk, and I think despite efforts to control it, there is a good chance for some upset to the status quo as further iterations of the technologies become more ingrained and capable and exert greater influence on the various forces and tensions in the world. Or not, who knows, weird times we're living in.