For the first time in history, there now exists a substrate upon which AGI can manifest. Almost immediately after it was created, machine learning cropped up. Machine learning wasn’t new, it just never had the computational substrate it needed to produce the amazing results it’s become known for. Since ML was already established, it was low hanging fruit and it’s no surprise to see it catch fire so to speak.
As time goes forward the computational substrate will mature. Huge amounts of compute will be available for less and less money through easy to use APIs.
The number of people working on AGI will only increase. People will keep taking cracks at it until they get it. They will get it much sooner than anyone thought. The only reason it hasn’t been done already is because there was no computational substrate for it to incubate in so to speak. Now that the computational tinderbox has been created, all that is needed is the smallest of sparks. It will happen soon and unfortunatley it will be very unpleasant. I am being completely honest when I say that this is the sole reason why I have not decided to have children and when I implore anyone who reads this to not bring anyone into the world. The future will be very bleak for future generations.
The economics of AI demand the casting off of human life as we know it. The world as we know it now only sustains is because we as humans are the exclusive source of intelligent signal processing. When we are superseded in that ability, we will be lost to evolution. It’s impossible to know exactly how the transition will happen but one of the few things that can be relied on is that human society will become extremely fragile. Human society persists because we are the most dominant life form. When machines take over, we may be given token existences or a society pen to live in but it will be vestigial. There is no force of evolution or economics that ensures that each successive generation or “species” of machine intelligence will accommodate humans.
Many different machine entities will compete and fight, and in that way evolution will continue much as it has before. We may linger for a time in that world, but we do not have a divine right to exist in that world as we do in this one. We will be vestigial and ultimately lost. And all of this is just the economics/evolutionary aspect. I have not included here the possibility of a “terminator” outcome, or even mentioned the other countless grotesque possibilities.
Nobody will believe any of this. My opinion is universally dismissed. But it’s right.
Right now is the best it will ever be more or less, for humans. But we could preserve this state of affairs if we chose to.
>I am being completely honest when I say that this is the sole reason why I have not decided to have children and when I implore anyone who reads this to not bring anyone into the world. The future will be very bleak for future generations.
If everyone listened to you, there would be no future generations. Have you thought this through? "Let's end the human race, because something bad might happen" doesn't exactly sound very solid reasoning.
p.s. What did your girlfriend/wife say about your decision?
Risk of idiocracy aside, there's enough humans and diversity in the way humans think that we can definitely rely on enough other humans to reproduce.
I'm somebody's girlfriend/wife and I do not want children (in general, and also because of future economic uncertainties) and I also don't like my existence being relagated to "someone who might want babies".
As time goes forward the computational substrate will mature. Huge amounts of compute will be available for less and less money through easy to use APIs.
The number of people working on AGI will only increase. People will keep taking cracks at it until they get it. They will get it much sooner than anyone thought. The only reason it hasn’t been done already is because there was no computational substrate for it to incubate in so to speak. Now that the computational tinderbox has been created, all that is needed is the smallest of sparks. It will happen soon and unfortunatley it will be very unpleasant. I am being completely honest when I say that this is the sole reason why I have not decided to have children and when I implore anyone who reads this to not bring anyone into the world. The future will be very bleak for future generations.
The economics of AI demand the casting off of human life as we know it. The world as we know it now only sustains is because we as humans are the exclusive source of intelligent signal processing. When we are superseded in that ability, we will be lost to evolution. It’s impossible to know exactly how the transition will happen but one of the few things that can be relied on is that human society will become extremely fragile. Human society persists because we are the most dominant life form. When machines take over, we may be given token existences or a society pen to live in but it will be vestigial. There is no force of evolution or economics that ensures that each successive generation or “species” of machine intelligence will accommodate humans.
Many different machine entities will compete and fight, and in that way evolution will continue much as it has before. We may linger for a time in that world, but we do not have a divine right to exist in that world as we do in this one. We will be vestigial and ultimately lost. And all of this is just the economics/evolutionary aspect. I have not included here the possibility of a “terminator” outcome, or even mentioned the other countless grotesque possibilities.
Nobody will believe any of this. My opinion is universally dismissed. But it’s right.
Right now is the best it will ever be more or less, for humans. But we could preserve this state of affairs if we chose to.