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> How have we completely lost focus on new physics or foundational sciences and devoted the smartest minds of our time to transformers and data scraping? I'm n
by tazu 3y ago
> How have we completely lost focus on new physics or foundational sciences and devoted the smartest minds of our time to transformers and data scraping?
I'm not smart enough to be a physicist, but I like listening to Eric Weinstein[1]. He thinks string theory is essentially a dead-end honeypot doing exactly what you describe with our smartest minds.
[1]: https://youtu.be/eOvqJwgY8ow https://youtu.be/eOvqJwgY8ow
- sebmellen 3y agoIf Weinstein could tone down his conspiratorial edges and focus on the primary substance of what he’s saying, I think he would be more effective at achieving his goals. I like his podcast appearances — they are fun to listen to — but the solution to political machinations destroying established institutions is not to focus on the politics! We need to escape that frame entirely, and focus instead on building new institutions that are sufficiently reverent of smart minds and brilliant people. Yes, we need new physics! We get there by escaping the current career trap which stops brilliant people from trying new approaches. Give the top, boldest, most daring researchers an alternative to tenure — $10m vested in a secure position at a new research institute. Then they won’t have to be scared of string theory boogeymen.
- mianos 3y agoSabine Hossenfelder just did a talk on this. I wonder if the smartest AIs will go down the same rabbit-hole and chew up a billion CPUs in a loop?