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Not to burst anyones bubble but this was written by a self taught AI engineer who is 19 years old. I mean this might be a joke (April Fools!). I mean, thats nic

Not to burst anyones bubble but this was written by a self taught AI engineer who is 19 years old. I mean this might be a joke (April Fools!). I mean, thats nice and all ... but who's 19 and not ultra positive about their work/life outlook.

mkaic 5y ago
Hi! I'm the author. The article is not a joke, more of a lighthearted investigation into a topic I find fascinating. It's also not meant to be perceived as necessarily positive or negative -- I'm personally actually very nervous/scared for the singularity, as after it happens I believe the future gets even more muddy, and the potential for unprecedented extreme outcomes skyrockets -- could be anything from a perfect utopia to extinction of biological life. This article simply contains my views as to what I honestly expect the future will hold, as well as a few concerns I have in regards to that.
- wankerrific 5y ago
  You’re 19? You should be more worried about how to survive the oncoming ecological holocaust instead of the singularity. One is much likelier than the other. I believe even an ML algo would come to the same conclusion
  - mkaic 5y ago
    Oh believe me, climate change scares the heck out of me too :) I'm really really really rooting for fusion energy to work out soon and solve the energy crisis, but in the meantime I think we need to hard pivot to as much fission energy as possible, as well as convert to entirely electric transportation and shipping.
    - cmsj 5y ago
      I have some bad news for you I'm afraid - fusion is not going to be industrially useful on an ecologically relevant timescale. It's a lot like AGI in its "maybe the next generation will have this, but we won't" property.
      - bobsmooth 5y ago
        General Fusion is building their test plant right now.
        cmsj 5y ago
        correct, but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be rolling out thousands of them around the world next year or even in 5 years time. There are tens of thousands of fossil fuel power stations around the world, and we globally consume around 138TWh of non-renewably-produced electricity per year (and growing fast). I used the words "industrially useful" very deliberately. The goal is not to produce one fusion reactor that can run continuously over unity, the goal is to produce tens of thousands of them and have them deployed globally. That is a project that will take decades.
  - 0F 5y ago
    The singularity makes climate change look like a picnic.
    - paxys 5y ago
      Chances of AI singularity happening in our lifetime x devastation caused by AI singularity Chances of climate crisis happening in our lifetime x devastation caused by climate crisis Which one do you think is higher?
      - 0F 5y ago
        First one. The devastation will be unimaginable and irreversible. At least with climate it will be possible for human kind to hobble forward somehow. And changing the climate would be infinitely easier than putting the AGI genie back in its bottle.
        umvi 5y ago
        We need some bookies in this thread. A lot of AGI skeptics could get very rich at the expense of those that are absolutely convinced that AGI/singularity is coming soon. I'm willing to put down 10k that "the singularity" (by some agreed upon definition) will not happen by 2050.
        0F 5y ago
        2050 is soon…
reducesuffering 5y ago
I think knocking a person's beliefs because of their age, rather than entertaining the content based on merit, is narrow-minded. What about all the 19 year olds who were already accomplishing lots more than the people castigating them? Do you equally brush off 40 year olds for their supposed entrenched outlook?
- seabriez 5y ago
  I am not knocking it. I am just describing the inherent bias and my thoughts as from the title it almost seems as though someone made a major breakthrough; instead it's a more contemplative article. I don't know if the ? was added after or I didnt notice it. I was 19 yo too once and I know how it goes. I don't really understand why I need to be defensive here. You can talk about being 40 and say exactly the same thing, people shouldn't be judged and yet they are.
  - mkaic 5y ago
    I agree, my initial response was to defensively think "Oh, there's no way this person can just diss me for being young" but then I realized I was proving their point :P I'm fully aware that my lack of life experience rose-tints my view of the future, but I still enjoy sharing those rose-tinted views of the future nonetheless.
    - seabriez 5y ago
      For a 19-yo that's still great work. Singularity is an insanely complicated topic to handle, nothing wrong with trying though :).
      - mkaic 5y ago
        Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to read!
    - satori99 5y ago
      You have written a piece that has provoked an interesting discussion. I think most people don't write it down, or publish it, even if they have the thoughts. If you keep sharing, I'll keep reading :)
ShamelessC 5y ago
> Keep in mind that this is just speculation and opinions. These predictions depict the future I personally feel is most likely. Not sure whose bubble you are bursting because the article is clear that it isn't meant to be an authoritative prediction. In that context, what you are saying is that: a.) this person is too young to even be speculating about this, despite clearly being informed on the subject if you read the article. b.) their ideas are so laughable that they are more likely an April Fool's joke. Context is important and this just seemed like a rude, patronizing comment to make honestly.

mkaic 5y ago

Hi! I'm the author. The article is not a joke, more of a lighthearted investigation into a topic I find fascinating. It's also not meant to be perceived as necessarily positive or negative -- I'm personally actually very nervous/scared for the singularity, as after it happens I believe the future gets even more muddy, and the potential for unprecedented extreme outcomes skyrockets -- could be anything from a perfect utopia to extinction of biological life. This article simply contains my views as to what I honestly expect the future will hold, as well as a few concerns I have in regards to that.

wankerrific 5y ago
You’re 19? You should be more worried about how to survive the oncoming ecological holocaust instead of the singularity. One is much likelier than the other. I believe even an ML algo would come to the same conclusion
- mkaic 5y ago
  Oh believe me, climate change scares the heck out of me too :) I'm really really really rooting for fusion energy to work out soon and solve the energy crisis, but in the meantime I think we need to hard pivot to as much fission energy as possible, as well as convert to entirely electric transportation and shipping.
  - cmsj 5y ago
    I have some bad news for you I'm afraid - fusion is not going to be industrially useful on an ecologically relevant timescale. It's a lot like AGI in its "maybe the next generation will have this, but we won't" property.
    - bobsmooth 5y ago
      General Fusion is building their test plant right now.
      - cmsj 5y ago
        correct, but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be rolling out thousands of them around the world next year or even in 5 years time. There are tens of thousands of fossil fuel power stations around the world, and we globally consume around 138TWh of non-renewably-produced electricity per year (and growing fast). I used the words "industrially useful" very deliberately. The goal is not to produce one fusion reactor that can run continuously over unity, the goal is to produce tens of thousands of them and have them deployed globally. That is a project that will take decades.
- 0F 5y ago
  The singularity makes climate change look like a picnic.
  - paxys 5y ago
    Chances of AI singularity happening in our lifetime x devastation caused by AI singularity Chances of climate crisis happening in our lifetime x devastation caused by climate crisis Which one do you think is higher?
    - 0F 5y ago
      First one. The devastation will be unimaginable and irreversible. At least with climate it will be possible for human kind to hobble forward somehow. And changing the climate would be infinitely easier than putting the AGI genie back in its bottle.
      - umvi 5y ago
        We need some bookies in this thread. A lot of AGI skeptics could get very rich at the expense of those that are absolutely convinced that AGI/singularity is coming soon. I'm willing to put down 10k that "the singularity" (by some agreed upon definition) will not happen by 2050.
        0F 5y ago
        2050 is soon…

reducesuffering 5y ago

I think knocking a person's beliefs because of their age, rather than entertaining the content based on merit, is narrow-minded. What about all the 19 year olds who were already accomplishing lots more than the people castigating them? Do you equally brush off 40 year olds for their supposed entrenched outlook?

seabriez 5y ago
I am not knocking it. I am just describing the inherent bias and my thoughts as from the title it almost seems as though someone made a major breakthrough; instead it's a more contemplative article. I don't know if the ? was added after or I didnt notice it. I was 19 yo too once and I know how it goes. I don't really understand why I need to be defensive here. You can talk about being 40 and say exactly the same thing, people shouldn't be judged and yet they are.
- mkaic 5y ago
  I agree, my initial response was to defensively think "Oh, there's no way this person can just diss me for being young" but then I realized I was proving their point :P I'm fully aware that my lack of life experience rose-tints my view of the future, but I still enjoy sharing those rose-tinted views of the future nonetheless.
  - seabriez 5y ago
    For a 19-yo that's still great work. Singularity is an insanely complicated topic to handle, nothing wrong with trying though :).
    - mkaic 5y ago
      Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to read!
  - satori99 5y ago
    You have written a piece that has provoked an interesting discussion. I think most people don't write it down, or publish it, even if they have the thoughts. If you keep sharing, I'll keep reading :)

ShamelessC 5y ago

> Keep in mind that this is just speculation and opinions. These predictions depict the future I personally feel is most likely. Not sure whose bubble you are bursting because the article is clear that it isn't meant to be an authoritative prediction. In that context, what you are saying is that: a.) this person is too young to even be speculating about this, despite clearly being informed on the subject if you read the article. b.) their ideas are so laughable that they are more likely an April Fool's joke. Context is important and this just seemed like a rude, patronizing comment to make honestly.