11–20 of 28 posts
I disagree with your basic premise that the singularity or end is near. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was communism and nuclear war that were going to end the world. We were near certaint on those eventualities. In the 1990s, it was environmental disaster. In 2020 and 2021, it was the pandemic. And now it seems back to environmental disaster again -- I can't even keep up with the oft-parroted line that humans will extin…
People have been shouting "the end is near" for millennia. So far, we're still going. Now the singularity is supposedly near. Yeah, just like fusion energy is always ten, twenty, thirty years in the future. But for real now, really! Just live your life as you see fit. Predicting the future is nigh on impossible anyway and certainly for the big life changing events. The only thing you can be certain of is that resourc…
>> wealth is getting more concentrated by the few rich individuals and multinationals that are doing that already.
I'm definitely in the camp that spreading wealth around a bit would be better.
That said "wealth" is a somewhat nebulous notion. For example, Warren Buffet has clearly concentrated a lot of wealth, but at the same time he invests that wealth across a broad spectrum, which in turn creates a "life style" for lots of people.
VCs are a manifestation of "concentrated wealth" which us the able to take more risks since the penalty for failure is lower. Sure most of their bets don't pan out, but there are quite a few things we enjoy today which probably wouldn't exist if a more traditional business model was used.
PayPal concentrated wealth, but would SpaceX and Tesla exist without that.
Of course rich people being dicks makes the news, but unwealthy folk can be dicks too. And there are lots of rich nice-guys.
Sure, I think more could be done to raise up the less wealthy. Sure I can think of better ways to spread the wealth around.
But I'd posit that the sort of capitalist feudalism we seem to be encountering isn't the end of the word. Depending of course on the feudal lords you choose to follow.
With that you can spend all you earn, you will be forced to save a bit naturally due to mortgage repayments and the retirement setup and you have diverse investments.
Once you gave equity you can borrow to invest more.
If you get any bonusy kind of money like RSU then invest that as you go along unless you need it to create more cushion for your mortgage.
Is not an unreasonable question, but you can only plan for the future you know. Regardless of when AGI appears, or singularity occurs, the road you’re on right now is aging the associated costs of that. Plan for that.
This whole singularity theory seems incredibly flawed, assuming infinite intelligence translates to infinite resources seems to discount basic physics. General AI will definitely revolutionize life but it will still be bound by the laws of physics. Climate change could have progressed too far by the time AGI comes around to save us. Even with perfect knowledge you can be in a losing position in a game.
I used to take those things seriously in my youth. Back then we were heading rapidly into an ice age.
Don't go nuts spending your money, plan carefully for retirement, and if you're lucky, you'll get to spend those savings. But don't be so tight with it that you miss out on everything.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_ap...
This whole singularity theory seems incredibly flawed, assuming infinite intelligence translates to infinite resources seems to discount basic physics. General AI will definitely revolutionize life but it will still be bound by the laws of physics. Climate change could have progressed too far by the time AGI comes around to save us. Even with perfect knowledge you can be in a losing position in a game.
Climate change mitigation isn't an intelligence problem, it's a political problem (a tragedy of the commons but in geopolitical scale). Maybe if AGI can become a dictator that rules over humans it can stop us from selfishly destroying the future, otherwise, we'll keep fighting for our "right" to eat beef and take jet-fuelled vacations...