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I'm surprised that "combating UFOs" hasn't joined quantum computing, the metaverse, machine learning, self-driving cars, and crypto among the bullshit investmen

I'm surprised that "combating UFOs" hasn't joined quantum computing, the metaverse, machine learning, self-driving cars, and crypto among the bullshit investment bubbles. I bet there's a market in consulting with corporate executives to help them future-proof their enterprises against alien invasions.

bergenty 4y ago
Literally none of the things you’ve mentioned are bullshit investment bubbles.
- wikitopian 4y ago
  Not even NFTs, where people were aggressively bidding against one another for a database entry confirming their ownership of a cartoon monkey on drugs? Not even quantum computing, where wall street is investing billions in quirky (quorky?) transistors that might maybe potentially crack a limited subset of cryptographic algorithms within the next several decades? Not even with self-driving cars, which are taking on the ultimate life-or-death task before machine learning can even reliably outperform a minimum wage laborer at heavily constrained and scripted tech support tasks? You're all in on all that?
  - bluesnowmonkey 4y ago
    Self driving cars are just a little early. They won’t work until gradually they will, which is a threshold we’re arguably already crossing. So it doesn’t really belong on the list. And machine learning is massively successful and growing. Otherwise it’s a pretty good list of bullshit.
    - wikitopian 4y ago
      Self-driving cars are the least obvious scam on the list, for sure. The reason we appear so close is that well over 90% of driving is incredibly easy and can be performed without a sentient human being. This creates the impression that we're 90% there when we're nowhere near that close. We have decades of research to borrow from on this matter from drunk drivers, who are a perfect proxy for artificially intelligent machines attempting to drive automobiles without a sober human's fuzzy logic reasoning skills. Both Big Tech and drunk drivers are very emboldened by that 90% of driving that doesn't require thinking and that 99% of driving that's not a life-or-death test of fuzzy logic reasoning skills.
- iancmceachern 4y ago
  Crypto is, I'd argue that much (not all) of what I've seen in "AI" is also.

bergenty 4y ago

Literally none of the things you’ve mentioned are bullshit investment bubbles.

wikitopian 4y ago
Not even NFTs, where people were aggressively bidding against one another for a database entry confirming their ownership of a cartoon monkey on drugs? Not even quantum computing, where wall street is investing billions in quirky (quorky?) transistors that might maybe potentially crack a limited subset of cryptographic algorithms within the next several decades? Not even with self-driving cars, which are taking on the ultimate life-or-death task before machine learning can even reliably outperform a minimum wage laborer at heavily constrained and scripted tech support tasks? You're all in on all that?
- bluesnowmonkey 4y ago
  Self driving cars are just a little early. They won’t work until gradually they will, which is a threshold we’re arguably already crossing. So it doesn’t really belong on the list. And machine learning is massively successful and growing. Otherwise it’s a pretty good list of bullshit.
  - wikitopian 4y ago
    Self-driving cars are the least obvious scam on the list, for sure. The reason we appear so close is that well over 90% of driving is incredibly easy and can be performed without a sentient human being. This creates the impression that we're 90% there when we're nowhere near that close. We have decades of research to borrow from on this matter from drunk drivers, who are a perfect proxy for artificially intelligent machines attempting to drive automobiles without a sober human's fuzzy logic reasoning skills. Both Big Tech and drunk drivers are very emboldened by that 90% of driving that doesn't require thinking and that 99% of driving that's not a life-or-death test of fuzzy logic reasoning skills.
iancmceachern 4y ago
Crypto is, I'd argue that much (not all) of what I've seen in "AI" is also.