this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
1024 points (97.1% liked)
Science Memes
10940 readers
1969 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The AI hype comes from a new technology that CEOs don't understand. That's it. That's all you need for hype it happens all the time. Unfortunately, instead of an art scam we're now dealing with a revolutionary technology that once it matures will be one of the most important humanity has ever created, right up there with fire and writing. The reason it's unfortunate is because we have a bunch of idiots charging ahead when we should be approaching with extreme caution. While generative neural networks aren't likely to cause anything quite as severe as total societal collapse, I give them even odds of playing a role in the creation of a technology that has the greatest potential for destruction that any humanity could theoretically produce: Artificial General Intelligence.
The part that should be making us all take notice is that the tech-bros and even developers are getting off on this. They are almost openly celebrating the notion that they are ushering in technology akin to the nuclear age and how it has the potential to end us all. It delights them. I have been absorbing the takes on all sides of the AI camp and almost as worrying as the people who mindlessly hate LLM's to the degree that they are almost hysterical about it, are the people on the other side who secretly beat it to the fantasy of ending humanity and some kind of "the tables have turned" incels-rise-up-like techbro cult where they finally strike back against normies or some such masturbatory fantasy.
It's not real to any of them honestly, nobody has been impacted personally by LLM's besides a few people who have fallen in love with chat bots. They are basking in fan-fiction for something that doesn't exist yet. And I'm talking about the people who are actually building the things.
Many of the AI evangelists have at least sympathies with Accelerationism. Their whole idea is to rush to civilization collapse so it can be rebuild it in their image. What's sacrificing a few billion people if trillions of transhumans can be engineered tomorrow, say the tech bros.
A lot of the population in the developed world right now has crashed headfirst into this societal "wall" of isolation and hopelessness, with feelings of being wedged between issues that encroach from all sides as they doomscroll every day.
A lot of people right now are creeping over the "ironic" boundary when talking about ideas like the end of the world, ending their lives, the end of humanity, etc. People just want the discomfort to stop, and for many people it feels like the only way out is absolute chaos and doom because our system is now just too complicated and politics and sociology is too complicated and emotionally challenging to actually focus on and address in a serious, problem-solving way. Much less having the mental fortitude to actually stand up for your beliefs against the inevitable mountain of resistance you will face for having ANY kind of stance or opinion.
It depresses people in large scale, it makes people behave weirdly.
And this was all happening before covid hit and just shook the damn soda can.
Reminds me of the expression: "it's easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism."
The current system is indeed slowly ripped apart by its own internal contradictions, just as all other systems in the past did, but the new system is not there yet. The in-between is always a confusing time while people try to cling to the old system like Stockholm syndrome to their captors. It's only going to get worse. I can't say I have any signs of a viable new systems appearing. There have been attempts, not nothing that can stand up to that resistance you mentioned.
I'm glad at least one other person gets it, where we're at and what our actual situation is.
My worry is about how bad things are going to get before the "new system" begins to solidify. We have like, three or four different serious wildcards that are so unpredictable that I can't fathom what the next four decades are going to look like. We're about to see the fastest and most profound changes to society in all recorded history, but we still have brains that were developed in the Ice Age for surviving bears and wolves. We're not the rational, thinking species we think we are and we're about to collectively run headlong into that reality for the first time as a species.