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Sandbar101 t1_j9w89im wrote

I could not have said it better myself. You are absolutely, completely 100% right. It makes you feel like reality is gaslighting you, but you know you’re right. And you ARE right. We have maybe 40 years till the end of our human society as we know it. Whatever comes next will be so radically different it will be unrecognizable. And honestly I expect it to be closer to like 20 years. We fundamentally cannot imagine the scope and scale of what AI is capable of. Thats the whole point of calling it the Singularity.

Rest assured, we’re here with you, and we understand.

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Kennybob12 t1_j9wqd3m wrote

I'd like to add that it's not that they are right about most humans scope of understanding, because 90% dont even understand the internet, it's that they refuse to. This is a threat to every way of life that most know, whether they acknowledge it or not. This is form of fear based refusal because no one has been taught how to understand outside their means. One would argue that even this case can be applied to us because while we are excited, there is plenty of space to worry about what this impacts for the singular.

We dont know how to stop, change, or even combat what this will become. Your most basic sense of survival is threatened, and only so many thought experiments will comfort one's mind. We can say we understand even to the nth degree, but we only can form in our mind what we are comfortable with.

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Sandbar101 t1_j9wv37a wrote

Very well said and exceedingly accurate

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thecoffeejesus OP t1_j9xocuk wrote

I agree, and I want to add that it’s the idea that we just fundamentally can’t really grasp what could happen, the scale or the speed, that means that this thing is so wildly, uncontrollable that it’s kind of overwhelming.

Because I think of it like this:

With the technology that we have today, a kid, 10 years from now, will be able to create stuff on their mobile phone in a similar way that we can emulate an Xbox on the iPhone and play games like Halo.

But EXPONENTIALLY more powerful.

Yes, I know there’s limits.

But we don’t know what those limits are.

We just can’t.

It’s like a grasshopper trying to understand an airplane.

They both fly, but in a completely different way.

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phillythompson t1_j9yi9tc wrote

40 years is generous lol

Factor in exponential growth and i would argue society looks crazy different in 5-7 years.

It’s only been 15 years since the smart phone, and look at how drastically different life is today.

This will be orders of magnitude more

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drekmonger t1_j9zolyk wrote

> It’s only been 15 years since the smart phone

The term "smartphone" was coined in 1995 (28 years ago), but there were earlier examples of smartphone-ish things, like the IBM Simon.

The first modern-ish smartphone with an Internet connection was probably the Blackberry or Palm Treo, both in 2002.

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visarga t1_ja52xcs wrote

In many ways it's been the same since 2010. We could talk, take photos, load web pages, use maps, set alarms and play games back then too, we even had Uber and AirBnb. Now the screens are a bit larger and the experience more polished.

I was expecting something more revolutionary - the phone is a pack of sensors, it has sight, hearing, touch, orientation, radio and many other sensors in the same package. But the amazing new applications didn't appear, except Pokemon Go?

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randomthrowaway-917 t1_ja7d1wq wrote

i cant wait for tech to get to the point where pokemon go actually looks like the first ads that came out for it

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visarga t1_ja52ibm wrote

Not even people working in the field have a good idea about 3 years ahead. Ten or twenty years ahead is just sci-fi.

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vivehelpme t1_jacuivl wrote

>40 years till the end of our human society as we know it. Whatever comes next will be so radically different it will be unrecognizable.

400 years ago, one could sit at a wooden outdoor table with a glass of wine, wearing woven textile clothes, and enjoy the warmth of a sunny spring day.

In 40 years I can still do that. Some things change, others don't. I don't need a pair of carbon fiber nanotube smartpants with RGB LEDs that can give me a handjob thank you very much.

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