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Notes -
There has been a lot of hype news in robotics + AI lately, as the AI updates just continue to come at a blinding pace. From Tesla/XAI we have the Optimus robot, which I can't tell if this is a major breakthrough or just another marketing splash driven by Elon.
On the other side of the fence, you have Nvidia releasing an open foundational model for robotics and partnering with Disney of all companies to make a droid robot.
You also have Google's I/O, which I haven't had the energy to look into.
With the speed of AI updates and the wars of hype, it's always hard to tell who is actually advancing the frontier. But it does seem that in particular robotics are advancing quite rapidly compared to even a couple of years ago. Personally I think that while automating white collar work is useful and such, AI entering into robotics will be the real game changer. If we can begin to massively automate building things like housing, roads, and mass manufactured goods, all of the sudden we get into an explosive growth curve.
Of course, this is where AGI doomer fears do become more salient, so that's something to watch out for.
Either way, another day, another AI discourse. What do you think of this current crop of news?
It is crazy to me that most people alive today will be around to see how this - this journey of civilization, this grand process of technological development - ends, or at least moves far, far beyond us. There is a millenarian tension in the air. Paradise or extinction (at least for most people), it seems increasingly clear it will be one or the other.
I have deep emotions seeing you go from an AI-skeptic a few years back to well, this. I'm not quite sure what those emotions are, but they're there.
I’m very flawed, in that I’m often arrogant, prone to making things up, dismissive. But I like to think that when the evidence is there, I can adapt, change my view. The evidence is here - even a simpleton can extrapolate. It’s easy to be scared but, when I am, I think of all the scientists and philosophers and inventors who one day imagined a moment like this, but who never got to see it. That is also a privilege, even if the outcome is a poor one.
I'm certainly not critiquing you for changing your mind! Imagine you had an interlocutor who you respected, yet who had always strongly pushed back against your claims. To have them suddenly adopt them, potentially even more strongly than yourself? That's a bemusing experience to say the least. It's as if the Pope recanted and became a Protestant, if not as drastic.
I am moderately depressed, and often feel shite about how life has been going recently (objectively not bad enough to warrant it). Yet I find strong comfort in knowing that in likely in one of the most interesting periods of human history. Leaving aside the 97 billion deceased anatomically modern humans, I feel a pang of sadness for every visionary, every proto-rationalist, singularitarian who dreamt of a transhumanist future, and yet died before they could see it.
In their honor, I intend to live to see wonders/horrors, and if the former, a lasting solution to every problem I've ever had. If the latter? Barring starving to death, it'll probably be quick and mostly painless. The future could be amazing, and I want to see it unfold. I'm sick of nothing ever happening.
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