It shows that the human quest has been in wrong direction since the industrial age began. Domains like math and other inter-connected or inter-dependent domains - all exist in modern times only to keep people employed outside of basic work such as farming and survival. All of these domains can be removed and humans can still continue with their lives taking care of what really is needed for their survival and sprawl. 99% of the "work" that happens today is froth, disconnected from basic needs.
After Math
51–60 of 171 posts
Re: After Math
#52I think as a civilization we need to postulate a new term: “purpose death” Defined something like: temporary state of complete loss of personal purpose and the experience of existential dread from never achieving self-actualization in spite of the tremendous time commitment towards excellence in a now automated intelligence. I truly think because of the pace of innovation this will be a universal feeling for every hu…
> temporary state of complete loss of personal purpose and the experience of existential dread from never achieving self-actualization in spite of the tremendous time commitment towards excellence in a now automated intelligence
> this will be a universal feeling for every human for the rest of existence
As someone that has accepted a very long time ago that nihilism is the only self-consistent philosophy, I've made peace with the fact that humanity has no purpose and therefore disagree with your conclusion. I haven't been driven to absurdism, either.
Instead, I derive purpose and self-worth from within.
Re: After Math
#53Wouldn't AI make the field of mathematics more ambitious? In software development it feels that way: there are often tasks I can take on that would have been too risky in 2025, because it was unclear if they were worth it. Now you generate a prototype and can make much better judgement calls what is possible and what is worth pursuing.
It might feel that way, but I'll ask again: where's the payoff? Where's all the amazing software that everyone is now supposedly shipping 10x faster than before? If I look at the software I'm actually using day-to-day, or that my friends are using, all this stuff looks exactly the same as it did in 2021. Not a single product release from Google, Microsoft, or more scrappy companies in the past 6 months made me go "wo…
Large companies move slowly and have lots of red tape. Give it a decade before making this call as far as large companies are concerned. That's how long it takes to change processes.
Re: After Math
#54It shows that the human quest has been in wrong direction since the industrial age began. Domains like math and other inter-connected or inter-dependent domains - all exist in modern times only to keep people employed outside of basic work such as farming and survival. All of these domains can be removed and humans can still continue with their lives taking care of what really is needed for their survival and sprawl.…
A useful term here is “instrumental reason.” The Ethics of Authenticity is a good read on the topic:
https://jaredhenderson.substack.com/p/the-modern-malaise?r=5...
Re: After Math
#55It shows that the human quest has been in wrong direction since the industrial age began. Domains like math and other inter-connected or inter-dependent domains - all exist in modern times only to keep people employed outside of basic work such as farming and survival. All of these domains can be removed and humans can still continue with their lives taking care of what really is needed for their survival and sprawl.…
We also use technology to care for the people in medicine and it requires pretty advanced science and engineering. Doesn't that shred your argument?
Re: After Math
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
From personal experience in a small (total <10 people) company, we have definitely 10x our product in the last two years. What 4 devs did in 4 years have been dwarfed by what 2 devs were able to do in 1 year with AI. I'm not so familiar with the giant companies, but from afar it seems like they already have practically all the code-writing capacity they wanted anyway. Google could say "let's build a browser" or "let'…
You might have delivered 10x more code, but did you deliver 10x more value? Or put another way, are you making 10x more money? It's easy to spend excess productivity effectively wasting time. Most companies did it before AI, and will continue doing it after. It's easy to believe you are not wasting time because you have more bugs fixed or more features delivered, but if it doesn't move the bottom line, what is the po…
I mean it doesn't have to bring 10x more value, but it can be a 10x better experience for existing users. There have been so many niche bugs that were never ever fixed because there's more important things to do, but because fixing a niche bug is now 1 click away that really changes the economics quite a bit especially for small teams.
I'm personally working on a product solo that would not be possible without a team of 3-4 people that are all knowledgeable in that field and would take at least 1 year to get it started. It only took me 3 months to get a fully working solution with $1200 worth of AI subscriptions, the value multiplication is nearly x100 here.
Re: After Math
#57Math is not dead, it (and i guess programming to a lesser degree?) is something people do to better themselves, akin to meditation. Just because AI can meditate (it cant) doesnt mean humans will stop meditating. We may become irrelevant in that AI can generate results and proofs that it doesnt need us for, but then AI will make itself irrelevant to us! The slippery slope slides both ways.
Re: After Math
#58I think one of the traits of people who feel a sense of loss about AI is that many of them value the bond that comes from discussion within their field. You could call it a sense of comradeship, or a shared sense of purpose.
Re: After Math
#59I think as a civilization we need to postulate a new term: “purpose death” Defined something like: temporary state of complete loss of personal purpose and the experience of existential dread from never achieving self-actualization in spite of the tremendous time commitment towards excellence in a now automated intelligence. I truly think because of the pace of innovation this will be a universal feeling for every hu…
> I’d say Terrance has recently left the denial phase, the anger phase I’m sure he wisely kept off the Internet, and is currently in the bargaining phase - ie scrambling to change the goal posts. I wonder if he will wisely keep the depression / burnout phases also off the internet.
You're making up a narrative about another person. You have no clue what's happening to him, without talking to him.
Re: After Math
#60Wouldn't AI make the field of mathematics more ambitious? In software development it feels that way: there are often tasks I can take on that would have been too risky in 2025, because it was unclear if they were worth it. Now you generate a prototype and can make much better judgement calls what is possible and what is worth pursuing.
It might feel that way, but I'll ask again: where's the payoff? Where's all the amazing software that everyone is now supposedly shipping 10x faster than before? If I look at the software I'm actually using day-to-day, or that my friends are using, all this stuff looks exactly the same as it did in 2021. Not a single product release from Google, Microsoft, or more scrappy companies in the past 6 months made me go "wo…
Generating AI images is something we couldn’t do before. AI assistants are better at web search than anything that came before.