Sashinii t1_iuf2vsc wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:03 PM

Reply to comment by Wise-Yogurtcloset646 in Is it time to retire futurism? by TheForgottenHost

"I feel like if we have no good scientific data or basis for predictions or expectations, futurism is nothing but a form of religion for atheists."

Evidence is different in science and technology: the former involves looking at current data and a focus on what already exists, whereas the latter involves extrapolation and a focus on creating what's possible according to the laws of physics.

There are graphs showing that accelerating progress and exponential growth have happened in the past and are happening now, so assuming that they'll stop happening in the future is going against the reality of the situation.

AI continues making tangible progress every day, but the same can't be said for religion, which never makes tangible progress, so this argument never makes sense.

KidKilobyte t1_iufatwn wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:57 PM

I think we are at the point where very soon AI helps create more powerful AI even if not fully self directed with one simple command. Much like more power CPUs made it easier to design the next generation of more powerful CPUs. So we are still at a point the humans still have to do a loft of lifting to get to next level, but the lift is getting easier and easier with each generation of AI. Things like AI discovering more effiecent math and neural network configurations.

iNstein t1_iufqcur wrote on October 30, 2022 at 11:49 PM

Exactly this. If we say looking at past data and trends and then projecting forward is not scientific, then basically climate science has to be added to that. In fact a huge chunk of science would be null and void and science would be labelled as a religion. Nothing about the singularity is non scientific, it is all based on observation and identifying trends and patterns in that data. If it weren't such an incredulous impact on our lives, no one would question it since the science is actually pretty clear and only the exact timing is really unclear.