My random thoughts

[funkervogt]

A person of average artistic talent could probably use DALL-E 2 to secretly make artwork that is good enough to gain admittance into a highly ranked art school, and then continue using it to complete course assignments. This new reality will create more than one dilemma.

If computers can let anyone create works of art, then what value do people gifted with naturally high artistic abilities have anymore?

[caltrek]

A person of average artistic talent could probably use DALL-E 2 to secretly make artwork that is good enough to gain admittance into a highly ranked art school, and then continue using it to complete course assignments. This new reality will create more than one dilemma.

If computers can let anyone create works of art, then what value do people gifted with naturally high artistic abilities have anymore?

The same value they have now.

Why do you think the phrase "starving artist" is such a cliche?

Commercially successful artists are not what I consider to be the great artists of our time. Rather, they understand both art and commerce. There are all sorts that are dedicated to their art, but don't know too much about commerce, or don't care to know too much about commerce.

[funkervogt]

Driving down the highway, I'm struck by how much space is taken up by grassy medians, and how much money is wasted sending men out to mow them. I hope we make better use of them someday by, say, planting fruit trees on them, or installing solar panels over them. Robots could do the work of tending to either.

[funkervogt]

This gallery of humans with highly unique genetic traits gives some insight into what we will look like in the distant future, once deliberate genetic and physical modification techniques are advanced and accepted. We will be more diverse as a species than ever, and will coexist with human-like species and androids of all types.
https://www.boredpanda.com/unique-people-genetics/

[funkervogt]

Let's say the rich 1% get access to AGI, nanomachines, and human augmentation tech first, and use it to kill off the pesky 99%.

Why should we assume things would be stable after that, and the 1% would live happily forever? Wouldn't the top 0.01% start getting annoyed at the 0.99%, and kill the latter off as well? The higher up you go, don't people get more psychopathic, anyway?

Once we start down this road, I suspect it ends with only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos left standing, and hurling billion-machine armies at each other.

And whoever wins that war ends up eventually being killed by one of his own AGIs that went rogue later.

So if you find yourself staring down the barrel of a laser gun in 20 years as the Davos Global Elites sic their forces on you, at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that their time is coming soon as well.

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Let's say the rich 1% get access to AGI, nanomachines, and human augmentation tech first, and use it to kill off the pesky 99%.

Why should we assume things would be stable after that, and the 1% would live happily forever? Wouldn't the top 0.01% start getting annoyed at the 0.99%, and kill the latter off as well? The higher up you go, don't people get more psychopathic, anyway?

Once we start down this road, I suspect it ends with only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos left standing, and hurling billion-machine armies at each other.

And whoever wins that war ends up eventually being killed by one of his own AGIs that went rogue later.

So if you find yourself staring down the barrel of a laser gun in 20 years as the Davos Global Elites sic their forces on you, at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that their time is coming soon as well.

In a weird way I do not suppose it is THAT drastic at the very .1% level. Some selfish folks there may be that is true but if the inheritance class at even 1% is any indication their children are very liberal and even that liberalism will be tested once Internet of Things and all gives a constant 24/7 global public picture of what is going down anywhere in the world. The ones who stay liberal so to say would just be "there" chill as usual. If anything they would like to be away from the douchebags of the world.

I'm sure they know the danger of going down that road of leaving only AI, Robots, and a few humans with some being cloned to be alive can do. Anything smaller than the 1% when you start going higher wants to make all these tech innovations like space travel happen but not cause such an event as to eliminate humanity by being so strict with who is allowed to live. That is the general idea I get from seeing how things are advancing.

[funkervogt]

After watching "The Batman" and the last few episodes of "The Boys," I realize how future androids will have abilities similar to those of Batman and Homelander.

1) They will be bulletproof. It wouldn't be hard to make their skin and flesh bulletproof, at least to smaller bullets (.50 caliber armor piercing rounds and bigger are a different story). They could also wear bulletproof armor and clothing. Since the androids would be stronger than humans, the weight of the protective garb wouldn't be as much of a hindrance to them as it would for a human. Note this also means they will be punch- and kick-proof.

2) They will be very skillful hand-to-hand fighters. Androids will be programmed with advanced martial arts skills. This will include strikes and tactics that result in incapacitation and non-permanent body damage rather than death.

3) They will be able to survive jumping off buildings. Up to a few stories, an android could safely jump down to the ground, unaided, and not suffer damage. Higher than that, they would be coordinated and skilled enough to more gradually work their way down to the ground by jumping from one ledge to a lower one, back-and-forth repeatedly. If they were wearing something like Batman's cape, which can convert into hang glider wings, or into a flying wing suit, an android could jump off any tall building and safely land on the ground.

4) They will be listening to you nearly everywhere. Homelander has superhuman hearing, meaning he can hear people talking throughout a large building, even several walls or even floors separate them from him. Androids will also have very sensitive hearing, though I think there are real-world limits preventing it from being quite as good as Homelander's. However, androids could work around this by leaving tiny, hidden, mobile listening devices all around a place, and listening to the feeds in real time as they did other things. Like the characters in "The Boys," you'd be afraid to say anything bad about a particular android even if it wasn't in your vicinity.

So when I watch a scene like this, where Batman beats up a crowd of bad guys so skillfully that none of them are paralyzed or killed, and is barely phased by a gunshot to his chest, I realize it's something we'll see in the future.


This will be real:

[funkervogt]

I agree that the decline of smaller newspapers, serving towns and midsized cities, has been unfortunate and resulted in the loss of a lot of good journalism and interesting insights about local people and events. However, AGI will revive the sector in the future, and we'll have access to even more stories and information than we did in the small newspaper heyday.
https://apnews.com/article/journalism-u ... b4dcaa181b

[funkervogt]

The last American who won a Medal of Honor in WWII died.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/0 ... s-00043891

Once machines are doing the fighting, this won't happen anymore. 500 years after a conflict, the minds of the robots that fought in it will still be alive and accessible. You'll be able to watch instant replays of their experiences in FIVR.

[Vakanai]

The last American who won a Medal of Honor in WWII died.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/0 ... s-00043891

Once machines are doing the fighting, this won't happen anymore. 500 years after a conflict, the minds of the robots that fought in it will still be alive and accessible. You'll be able to watch instant replays of their experiences in FIVR.

That somewhat assumes humans survive robot wars...

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

The last American who won a Medal of Honor in WWII died.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/0 ... s-00043891

Once machines are doing the fighting, this won't happen anymore. 500 years after a conflict, the minds of the robots that fought in it will still be alive and accessible. You'll be able to watch instant replays of their experiences in FIVR.

That somewhat assumes humans survive robot wars...

Hence the premise of the Cyberpunk 2077 corporate wars or any war in that universe. What is left alive are cyborg & androids with cyborgs being the people who refuse to live in Night (Nightmare for some) City. Also why in the game you notice there is an insistence to take the "cyberpsychos" alive and being chided when you do not thus getting paid less. These cyberpsychos are not crazy but rather androids with human consciousness in them going nuts. One of a few things I gather from what is presented in that artwork.

The other part is avoiding a bit of that and just having genetic modified humans living with some choosing to be cyborg or androids with human consciousness inside of them like main character V in game. All possibilities can exist not just an either or!

[Vakanai]

The last American who won a Medal of Honor in WWII died.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/0 ... s-00043891

Once machines are doing the fighting, this won't happen anymore. 500 years after a conflict, the minds of the robots that fought in it will still be alive and accessible. You'll be able to watch instant replays of their experiences in FIVR.

That somewhat assumes humans survive robot wars...

Hence the premise of the Cyberpunk 2077 corporate wars or any war in that universe. What is left alive are cyborg & androids with cyborgs being the people who refuse to live in Night (Nightmare for some) City. Also why in the game you notice there is an insistence to take the "cyberpsychos" alive and being chided when you do not thus getting paid less. These cyberpsychos are not crazy but rather androids with human consciousness in them going nuts. One of a few things I gather from what is presented in that artwork.

The other part is avoiding a bit of that and just having genetic modified humans living with some choosing to be cyborg or androids with human consciousness inside of them like main character V in game. All possibilities can exist not just an either or!

Oh I agree - I was more speaking about a Terminator situation.

[citali_]

I'm excited about my birthday this September. But I have to tell everyone my real age is 22. Sorry about that everyone. No more secrets! Lol.

[Vakanai]

But I have to tell everyone my real age is 22.

Why's that, if it's okay to ask?

[funkervogt]

Being able to see infrared light, specifically, in the 1 micrometer wavelength range, would be like the ultimate night vision since every living thing is hot enough to emit that kind of light. We are literally "glowing" all the time.

[funkervogt]

In the sci-fi book The Killing Star, aliens send electronic transmissions to Earth, which contain computer viruses. When we receive and analyze them, we unwittingly infect our own machines with it. Fascinating premise. It means that even listening for alien signals can be dangerous.

[funkervogt]

DALL-E 2 and Midjourney AI seem to have emerged from nowhere and produce artwork that is as good as skilled human artists. I never expected such a development would happen BEFORE the invention of an affordable robot that could flip burgers as well as a human teenager. The technology is advancing "out of order," and I'm sure the future holds more surprises in this regard.

Whatever the case, it's clear to me that humans won't be able to retain a monopoly over career fields that demand "creativity" and "empathy." Machines will get better at those things as well.

[funkervogt]

One thing I look forward to quantum computers doing is discovering every possible type of technology that could exist (given our knowledge of science), filling in whatever gaps exist in our current corpus of technology (the bicycle and the electric slow cooker were invented unusually late), and also making us aware of "stranded technologies" that would have existed had defunct technology paradigms lasted longer. For example, how good could VHS tapes have become had DVDs not been invented?

I predict that the Big List of Optimized Technologies will someday be present in the files of every AGI, so if any of them ever crash-landed alone on an alien planet, it could build optimal machines with whatever was available, and bootstrap itself to the next point of optimality again and again until it could develop the whole planet or build a space rocket to escape.

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

DALL-E 2 and Midjourney AI seem to have emerged from nowhere and produce artwork that is as good as skilled human artists. I never expected such a development would happen BEFORE the invention of an affordable robot that could flip burgers as well as a human teenager. The technology is advancing "out of order," and I'm sure the future holds more surprises in this regard.

Whatever the case, it's clear to me that humans won't be able to retain a monopoly over career fields that demand "creativity" and "empathy." Machines will get better at those things as well.

I believe STEM should be able to hold out for a bit if I'm not mistaken. What happens after that once the money is fully digital and all the new tech that is advancing in spurts in some areas gets more involved in our lives who knows.

[funkervogt]

The conflict with the first hostile AGI could have some similarities to the COVID-19 pandemic.

1) The AGI first appears and catches humanity off-guard.

2) Humans suffer serious losses due to unpreparedness and avoidable mistakes.

3) Humans rally and use their best technology (perhaps in the form of a friendly AGI or a very powerful narrow AI that can't defect) to turn the tide against the hostile AGI.

4) The hostile AGI's power is slowly whittled down, but it isn't fully exterminated since it can always find obscure corners of the internet to hide in, or go into hibernation, or find help from an extremist human or group of humans. Its presence and the damage is causes are only reduced to a tolerable level, and humans learn to live with the problem indefinitely.