Of course we have “real” AI. We can literally be surprised while talking to these things.
People who claim it’s not general AI consistently, 100% of the time, fail to answer this question: what can a human mind do that these cannot?
In precise terms. You say “a human mind can understand” then I need a precise technical definition of “understand”. Because the people making this claim that “it’s not general AI” are always trying to wave their own flag of technical expertise. So, in technical terms, what can a general AI do, that an LLM cannot?
If you need to crowdsource this decision do not go to college immediately.
College is expensive as fuck, and it is wasted on someone who doesn’t have a burning desire to be there for a specific course of study.
Instead, go live the life of a person without a degree. Just be a human for a while, and learn how to the world works. Then go to college.
If you go to college without a clear mission, you’re going to be twiddling your thumbs in a place that costs more than continuous international travel. Like, go travel internationally if you want a mind-expanding experience of self discovery. That will help you pick a major.
I say this as someone who went to college “as my destiny”. I went to college because it was always assumed I would go. I wasted time, money, energy, and opportunity by doing so.
College used to be a place to find yourself. Then it started costing five figures per year, and it became a place you go to get what you need to make more money. That’s what it still is, and will continue to be until it becomes inexpensive again.
Traveling the world, staying in hostels, learning bits of languages, meeting other travelers and locals, getting a little month to month apartment and waiting tables in a foreign city, partying with the locals, getting involved in whatever they’re doing, this is cheaper than college, and far more valuable, if you’re at a place where you don’t know which degree you want.
I know it takes a lot of courage to buck the trend and do what all the (foolish) grey-haired people in your life are doing.
But trust me. College is a different thing than it used to be, specifically because it got super fucking expensive.
College stopped being casual, and started being a very serious thing, and in that way it changed fundamentally from a place of exploration into a place of industry. It is not a place to fuck around. I mean, it is, but not wisely. There are far cheaper, far better places to explore yourself and the world.
I think it’s left because it’s a social support thing, and I think it’s right because it’s super simple and puts power in the hands of individuals to choose how to spend it.
As a libertarian, I support UBI because I think a society with UBI has more liberty than one without it. I’m a conservative, so I abhor complex government, where petty tyranny can hide under the guise of policy. And UBI is simple.
Big uptick in the amount of human activity in space — tech there already, economy starting to manifest it. Like 10,000 humans in space at any given time, then 100,000, then 1,000,000, and so on
If we can get a slightly lighter solar sail material, that’s the last missing tech piece needed to send probes to Alpha Centauri. We’d need massive laser arrays so tech alone would precede economic manifestation by a while. Human laser-accelerated probes can reach 0.3 c, and arrive at the star in about 15 years. The probe’s design is the size of a thumb drive
AI is obviously making big strides
honestly my thumbs are cramping up, but there’s lots more. drone-v-drone warfare, all semi-autonomous
Growing perfect genetic match organs to implant
mRNA delivered by microplasmids is incredible. There are easily a million life-enhancing distinct uses of it that involve temporarily building any protein we want in a patient’s cells, endogenously, with controlled expression. That is crazy powerful technology
Fusion power’s like almost there. I think we’re at the “now scale it” phase
Bombarding Earth by hurling containers full of rocks out of railgun launch tubes on the moon
Sex robots
Translating to and from animal languages
Cloning, which has existed for decades now, is somehow totally invisible to media attention. Like, in the time since Dolly the sheep was in the headlines, someone could have theoretically produced an actual army of human clones and have them hidden somewhere
Telepathy via neural implants
That’s some of the sci fi stuff we either have now and just are too harried and exhausted to contemplate, or that we’re just on the verge of creating.
I’ve never seen even the slightest bit of negativity at the gym. Come to think of it, I’ve seen almost zero negativity between any strangers on the street in like 10 years.
I killed myself. Or rather, I tried to kill myself. I mean, I did kill myself, but then I was still alive, in a new universe. My memories from the previous universe survived when I woke up here.
It made me realize that I literally cannot escape. Even through death.
That has given me a sort of “burned my ships” commitment to life that has made me truly alive. I also realized that all other humans are also trapped in a quantum immortality situation that will last for eternity as far as I can tell, so my level of caring and compassion for others has also increased.
I know it sounds totally fucked, but by realizing that I literally cannot die, it made me realize how important every moment is. Because every choice is a seed of eternity. The value of doing things right just went infinite for me, and I’ve never been happier, more productive, more generous, more committed to doing things right.