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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2226 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 11, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Don't forget physics. We're probably nowhere near the limit of how many computational operations it takes to get a given "intelligence" level of output, but whatever that limit is will combine with various physical limits on computation to turn even our exponential improvements into more logistic-function-like curves that will plateau (albeit at almost-incomprehensible levels) eventually.

What people seem to fairly consistently forget is that the exponential improvements in computation have come at an exponential development and build resource cost. It doesn't matter if a hypothetical AI can keep improving the core design part when everything else required to actually use that new core design keeps increasing exponentially in cost.

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