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The HN crowd's interest response has been so deadened by constant dopamine flow that they simply cannot be entertained anymore. "Meh" is the maximum level of e

The HN crowd's interest response has been so deadened by constant dopamine flow that they simply cannot be entertained anymore. "Meh" is the maximum level of emotional response that can be elicited. The invention of literal time travel, the invention of AGI, or the manufacture of a black hole as an energy source would all be met with mehs. Just a bunch of people dead inside. I still come here for the links and the 5% of comments that are insightful and not pedantic.

andrepd 5y ago
Are you implying AGI and time travel is at the same level as improved computer graphics?
- imwillofficial 5y ago
  No, it was saying that even a fantastic invention would fail to garner enthusiasm.
glitcher 5y ago
I would caution against forming judgement on an entire population based on the loudest minority within them. In my experience there seem to be many more reasonable, restrained, and quiet folk out there. Now if the signal to noise ratio in the comments here is trending towards more noise for you, then by all means the comments are less useful and may not be worth the time at some point. But don't confuse the loud cynical voices as being representative for all of us.
- pohl 5y ago
  No site will ever be judged by the quality of its lurkers.
boringg 5y ago
Your jaded view of HN may or may not be accurate but I think the general HN audience has already built in their expectation that the advancement of computer graphics will continually get better through incremental improvement not to dissimilar from chip development. Is this impressive? Yes & kudos to the people who built this. Is it life changing in any meaningful measure? Not really...it isn't a scientific breakthrough or complete paradigm shift of understanding that will the lens which you view your existence? Probably not. And expectations of this already happening were built into how I see the steady march of technology development. This is an incremental instead of step-function change in expectations and was already a pre-ordained outcome. You can argue that my expectations are to high and maybe this came earlier than expected but this isn't some shock to my system. I suspect that I am not the only one who feels this way. And if you are part of the team and just feel like people don't appreciate you work - that isn't the case. It is very impressive but it isn't a eureka moment of excitement (at least to me). If I misunderstand the significance - please guide me to what I am missing here.
- dougmwne 5y ago
  To me, the missing significance is that nothing is pre-ordained. As entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists, we build the future. The future does not build itself. And if you are a trendline oracle, the trajectory has been better looking games that require ever more development effort and ever more hardware. That trend has been extremely stifling to creativity due to the ever increasing financial investments needed. The promises of this new engine are exciting exactly because they break that trend. It runs on existing commodity hardware and achieves much better results than everything released on that hardware so far and with less development effort. Computer graphics are not going to solve anyone’s existential questions, but they are a significant creative tool across many art forms and better tools that require less effort to achieve better results are only a good thing for the creative industry, just like cheap digital cameras and editing software democratized filmmaking.
  - boringg 5y ago
    I don't disagree with you I disagree with the follow-up comment from the previous poster about it being 'meh'. Nothin is pre-ordainer for sure, that said there certainly seem to be fairly clear directions in technology. I think what was missing from my understanding is that this is a much more efficient use of resources for a better engine. Sounds like a leap forward in graphics engine (now developers will be captured on the Unreal Engine - great business model for the company). It still isn't a eureka moment that the other poster was really hoping for. Its very impressive but I am not going to swoon over the achievements. That doesn't make me "dead inside" because I can't get fully amped up for this post and I think that the poster missed how people might view look at this development which is why I added my own comments.
phreeza 5y ago
I think people were pretty blown away by the mRNA vaccines for example.

andrepd 5y ago

Are you implying AGI and time travel is at the same level as improved computer graphics?

imwillofficial 5y ago
No, it was saying that even a fantastic invention would fail to garner enthusiasm.

glitcher 5y ago

I would caution against forming judgement on an entire population based on the loudest minority within them. In my experience there seem to be many more reasonable, restrained, and quiet folk out there. Now if the signal to noise ratio in the comments here is trending towards more noise for you, then by all means the comments are less useful and may not be worth the time at some point. But don't confuse the loud cynical voices as being representative for all of us.

pohl 5y ago
No site will ever be judged by the quality of its lurkers.

boringg 5y ago

Your jaded view of HN may or may not be accurate but I think the general HN audience has already built in their expectation that the advancement of computer graphics will continually get better through incremental improvement not to dissimilar from chip development. Is this impressive? Yes & kudos to the people who built this. Is it life changing in any meaningful measure? Not really...it isn't a scientific breakthrough or complete paradigm shift of understanding that will the lens which you view your existence? Probably not. And expectations of this already happening were built into how I see the steady march of technology development. This is an incremental instead of step-function change in expectations and was already a pre-ordained outcome. You can argue that my expectations are to high and maybe this came earlier than expected but this isn't some shock to my system. I suspect that I am not the only one who feels this way. And if you are part of the team and just feel like people don't appreciate you work - that isn't the case. It is very impressive but it isn't a eureka moment of excitement (at least to me). If I misunderstand the significance - please guide me to what I am missing here.

dougmwne 5y ago
To me, the missing significance is that nothing is pre-ordained. As entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists, we build the future. The future does not build itself. And if you are a trendline oracle, the trajectory has been better looking games that require ever more development effort and ever more hardware. That trend has been extremely stifling to creativity due to the ever increasing financial investments needed. The promises of this new engine are exciting exactly because they break that trend. It runs on existing commodity hardware and achieves much better results than everything released on that hardware so far and with less development effort. Computer graphics are not going to solve anyone’s existential questions, but they are a significant creative tool across many art forms and better tools that require less effort to achieve better results are only a good thing for the creative industry, just like cheap digital cameras and editing software democratized filmmaking.
- boringg 5y ago
  I don't disagree with you I disagree with the follow-up comment from the previous poster about it being 'meh'. Nothin is pre-ordainer for sure, that said there certainly seem to be fairly clear directions in technology. I think what was missing from my understanding is that this is a much more efficient use of resources for a better engine. Sounds like a leap forward in graphics engine (now developers will be captured on the Unreal Engine - great business model for the company). It still isn't a eureka moment that the other poster was really hoping for. Its very impressive but I am not going to swoon over the achievements. That doesn't make me "dead inside" because I can't get fully amped up for this post and I think that the poster missed how people might view look at this development which is why I added my own comments.

phreeza 5y ago

I think people were pretty blown away by the mRNA vaccines for example.