Jeff Bezos says AI is in a bubble but society will get 'gigantic' benefits

Post by amrocha » Sat, Oct 04, 2025, 4:58 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #193

goalieca wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, when we are with family and friends, we’re on the damn phone!

Do people actually visit family in-person at least less often? And to the degree they augment rare family in-person visits with a lot of phone calls and/or video calls. I can believe a lot of friend get togethers IRL have been replaced with video calls. There's a tradeoff. I have a group of older friends and we still get together in-person but Zoom calls are a nice adder. I'm in a few organizations where we also find…

Post by amrocha » Sat, Oct 04, 2025, 4:59 AM UTC

monero-xmr wrote: post #148

Retric wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the average person actually better off after the late 90’s internet is probably a harder question than it might seem. The long tail may be closer to what I want, but the quality is also generally lower. YouTube just doesn’t support a team of talented writers, Amazon is mostly filled with junk, etc. Social media and gig work is a mixed bag. Junk e-mail etc may not be a big deal, but those kinds of downsides do erod…

Undeniably better off in every single way. Minimum is that the price of long distance phone calls is now zero, let alone video calls. Being able to speak to family and see them nonstop is incredible.

Post by amrocha » Sat, Oct 04, 2025, 5:02 AM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #162

akagusu wrote: post #97

The big question is what "society" he is talking about? Is it the "society" that includes all people, or the "society" that includes only rich people?

I don't understand this argument. Speaking as a kid who grew up middle-class as an 80's teen obsessed with (the then still new) computers, a non-rich person has access to more salient power today than ever in history, and largely for no or low cost. There are free AI's available that can diagnose illnesses for people in remote areas, non-Western nations, etc. and which can translate (and/or summarize) anything to any…

Post by amrocha » Sat, Oct 04, 2025, 5:06 AM UTC

bko wrote: post #135

ceejayoz wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has more. Was it a benefit? Does the benefit outweigh the harms?

Yes, Facebook is a benefit. Among other things, it gave me React which much of the modern web is built on, and React Native, PyTorch, GraphQL, Cassandra, Presto, and RocksDB just to name a few. The question is, what are billions of people doing on Facebook if it's harmful? I don't know. My daycare sends me updates, my barbershop tells me when they're closing and I used it to sell my fridge. This hole Facebook irratio…

Post by card_zero » Sat, Oct 04, 2025, 5:08 AM UTC

simonh wrote: post #232

motorest wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can make many replicators, money stops making much sense. You probably end up with energy (if these devices take a lot of energy to operate) as the new currency. If you can make many replicators, you certainly won't be providing them to anyone else. You'd be using them to ensure that money starts funneling into your revenue stream, and use that as a cash cow to pursue other projects.

That’s only a temporary possibility, once the tech gets out everyone will have replicators.