3 ms·

But how can we possibly be this optimistic though? Like, time and time again there are these little glimmers of fantasy that some technology alone can alleviate

But how can we possibly be this optimistic though? Like, time and time again there are these little glimmers of fantasy that some technology alone can alleviate the heinous/annoying parts of a mature capitalism, and every time the technology has ended up, after all is said and done, on the other side (so to speak). Like, go back and read old mailing lists. See how everyone was so assured that computers themselves, then cryptography, then the modern internet, would create radical changes in the way the economy works, and enable avenues for greater self-determination and happiness. They all seem so naive in retrospect, knowing what we know and how it all played out. I love that so many people are these days inspired by the llm tech to imagine a better world with them, and its important in itself to inspired like this. But precedence does not favor putting all your hopes in solely the technology itself for a better world. Hope I am wrong though!

visarga 3y ago
It will undoubtedly be a turbulent time. All the skills and knowledge expressed in text or images is compressed into models. And these models offer back all they know to each of us according to our needs. Learning from everyone indiscriminately, serving everyone specifically, open sourcing skills and knowledge to a much deeper degree than open source had on software. This will have social implications, it will speed up the learning process of any new technology. For example by upgrading Copilot, Github can upgrade coding practices everywhere (where it's used) to new coding standards instead of taking years, that's how fast it can go. On another line of thinking, an image-language-action model can be used to control robots, and robot hardware is getting accessible. There is a chance for inventing self reliance automation for people, a possible solution to job loss.
- beepbooptheory 3y ago
  Right, there are lots of things it could do, but the point is that these capabilities, or rather this potential, is merely necessary but not sufficient for actually following through with those nice things. It doesn't matter what it can do when there is a truly scary amount of power and interest directed towards, e.g., making sure job loss (or unemployment in general) doesn't change too much. They'll make these things illegal before they'd let it get even close to messing something like that up! There are already so many innovations and pieces of technology that could be helping instead of hurting. It should seem clear that the sheer capability of something could never be enough to change the state of affairs alone. Sure the printing press was critical, but there was also a whole lot of blood shed and tumultuous times before the enlightened subject of the printing press could enjoy their new class and literacy.

visarga 3y ago

It will undoubtedly be a turbulent time. All the skills and knowledge expressed in text or images is compressed into models. And these models offer back all they know to each of us according to our needs. Learning from everyone indiscriminately, serving everyone specifically, open sourcing skills and knowledge to a much deeper degree than open source had on software. This will have social implications, it will speed up the learning process of any new technology. For example by upgrading Copilot, Github can upgrade coding practices everywhere (where it's used) to new coding standards instead of taking years, that's how fast it can go. On another line of thinking, an image-language-action model can be used to control robots, and robot hardware is getting accessible. There is a chance for inventing self reliance automation for people, a possible solution to job loss.

beepbooptheory 3y ago
Right, there are lots of things it could do, but the point is that these capabilities, or rather this potential, is merely necessary but not sufficient for actually following through with those nice things. It doesn't matter what it can do when there is a truly scary amount of power and interest directed towards, e.g., making sure job loss (or unemployment in general) doesn't change too much. They'll make these things illegal before they'd let it get even close to messing something like that up! There are already so many innovations and pieces of technology that could be helping instead of hurting. It should seem clear that the sheer capability of something could never be enough to change the state of affairs alone. Sure the printing press was critical, but there was also a whole lot of blood shed and tumultuous times before the enlightened subject of the printing press could enjoy their new class and literacy.