6 ms·

I don’t hear about the Oppenheimers and von Neumanns of today’s world Sadder still is the underlying situaiton behind this: the fact that there's nothing of e

I don’t hear about the Oppenheimers and von Neumanns of today’s world Sadder still is the underlying situaiton behind this: the fact that there's nothing of even remotely comparable significance happening in the public sphere for such minds to devote themselves to, as those man did. Even though the current civilization risk if anything significantly greater than in their time.

lotsofpulp 2y ago
I feel like having access to instant high definition video communication and to the world’s repository of text, audio, and video information at a moment’s notice from a device in your pocket is of comparable, if not more, significance. These innovations in LEDs, battery technology, low power high performance microchips with features measured in number of atoms is extraordinary, and seemingly taken for granted. Then we also have medicines that can even bend one’s desire to over eat or even drink alcohol, not to mention better vaccines, cancer therapies, and so on and so forth.
- phtrivier 2y ago
  And the smartphone is making sure you'll get plenty of access to the people who will prevent you from taking the vaccines or the cancer therapies (which, sadly, have _not_ been progressing as much as we would need.)
  - Spooky23 2y ago
    Google immunotherapy bro. Vaccines are in a golden age, except political assholes are stoking ignorance and rejection. In fact the two are advancing together. Bespoke vaccines for your cancer in in trial now.
    - phtrivier 2y ago
      No it's not, but thanks for assuming. I'll be sure call to you when I meet the first real person cured from cancer by immunotherapy. So I far I only met people who died of cancer. But if you tell me we're in a "golden age", I suppose it will be over soon.
      - Spooky23 2y ago
        A good friend was in a Nivo/Ipi clinical trial in 2018/19 for metastatic melanoma. Melanoma is among the most aggressive cancers - it killed my beautiful wife in about 6 months. My friend is still alive and doing well. Prior to those trials, the 3 year survival rate was 0. Today, the 5 year survival rate is 65%. Before the anti-vax lunatics moved in and captured the narrative in social media, President Trump’s extensive funding and regulatory acceleration of the COVID vaccines saved many thousands of lives. The design of the vaccine was done in days and available in weeks. That’s a golden age.
        phtrivier 2y ago
        Sorry for your loss. Happy for your friend. I guess it's a case where the future is there, but we badly need to get it "more evenly distributed".
fragmede 2y ago
Even if you don't buy that LLMs and the transformer architecture in particular will lead to AGI, and then artificial super intelligence (ASI), the quest to try and make ASI is far more significant than anything that's ever come before. ASI would be the last thing that humans need to invent. https://youtu.be/fa8k8IQ1_X0 https://youtu.be/fa8k8IQ1_X0
- aguaviva 2y ago
  We'll see if it comes to anything, first. Until then, it doesn't have the property of being significant.
  - clayhacks 2y ago
    I mean it’s possible we don’t see it. Or perhaps don’t see it very much before it’s ridiculously smart. A lot of AI research is at private companies who only share some details when they formally release a model. If they could make an AI researcher AI, they may be inclined to keep it to themselves for a bit while they let it improve itself for a few generations.

lotsofpulp 2y ago

I feel like having access to instant high definition video communication and to the world’s repository of text, audio, and video information at a moment’s notice from a device in your pocket is of comparable, if not more, significance. These innovations in LEDs, battery technology, low power high performance microchips with features measured in number of atoms is extraordinary, and seemingly taken for granted. Then we also have medicines that can even bend one’s desire to over eat or even drink alcohol, not to mention better vaccines, cancer therapies, and so on and so forth.

phtrivier 2y ago
And the smartphone is making sure you'll get plenty of access to the people who will prevent you from taking the vaccines or the cancer therapies (which, sadly, have _not_ been progressing as much as we would need.)
- Spooky23 2y ago
  Google immunotherapy bro. Vaccines are in a golden age, except political assholes are stoking ignorance and rejection. In fact the two are advancing together. Bespoke vaccines for your cancer in in trial now.
  - phtrivier 2y ago
    No it's not, but thanks for assuming. I'll be sure call to you when I meet the first real person cured from cancer by immunotherapy. So I far I only met people who died of cancer. But if you tell me we're in a "golden age", I suppose it will be over soon.
    - Spooky23 2y ago
      A good friend was in a Nivo/Ipi clinical trial in 2018/19 for metastatic melanoma. Melanoma is among the most aggressive cancers - it killed my beautiful wife in about 6 months. My friend is still alive and doing well. Prior to those trials, the 3 year survival rate was 0. Today, the 5 year survival rate is 65%. Before the anti-vax lunatics moved in and captured the narrative in social media, President Trump’s extensive funding and regulatory acceleration of the COVID vaccines saved many thousands of lives. The design of the vaccine was done in days and available in weeks. That’s a golden age.
      - phtrivier 2y ago
        Sorry for your loss. Happy for your friend. I guess it's a case where the future is there, but we badly need to get it "more evenly distributed".

fragmede 2y ago

Even if you don't buy that LLMs and the transformer architecture in particular will lead to AGI, and then artificial super intelligence (ASI), the quest to try and make ASI is far more significant than anything that's ever come before. ASI would be the last thing that humans need to invent. https://youtu.be/fa8k8IQ1_X0 https://youtu.be/fa8k8IQ1_X0

aguaviva 2y ago
We'll see if it comes to anything, first. Until then, it doesn't have the property of being significant.
- clayhacks 2y ago
  I mean it’s possible we don’t see it. Or perhaps don’t see it very much before it’s ridiculously smart. A lot of AI research is at private companies who only share some details when they formally release a model. If they could make an AI researcher AI, they may be inclined to keep it to themselves for a bit while they let it improve itself for a few generations.