True. The people left behind are even worse: cryptobros. 😂

I’m close to Renewal. The red gem is about to start flashing. So the fiery ritual of Carousel is going to claim me soon enough. I’m at peace with that.

I’ve also arranged that I have nobody whose existence I’m responsible for that has to contend with the rather depressing future ahead of humanity. (Read: I have not procreated.) So I’m at peace with that as well. If humanity wants to obliterate itself in an orgy of stupidity and greed, that’s not my concern.

…

Unless.

…

They choose to do that before my Carousel. So that’s my main fear: that humanity will be in such a rush to fuck itself up that my palm won’t be blinking before WWIII or whatever starts. That I’ll have to witness what I’ve sadly come to accept as inevitable: the extinction of human civilization and the nigh-extinction of the human species.

AI is just humans but faster and more efficient …

Let me repair this for you:

AI is just humans (on some really stiff drugs) but faster and more efficient (at bullshitting with absolute confidence) …

I know, right? It’s amazing what kind of perfidy is done out in the net!

I’ve never seen AI slop that withstands any inspection of detail. Like clothing detail that makes no sense, or things weirdly merging one into another for no observable reason.

That’s a stupid question anyway.

I can’t fly a plane. I can still tell when a plane has crashed. I can’t play a sousaphone. I can still tell when someone’s played an incorrect note with one. I can’t cook Beijing roast duck. I can tell when one has been burned nonetheless, somehow.

It’s almost as if the question isn’t being asked in good faith.

Almost.

looks left

…

looks right

…

张殿李 isn’t my real name.

🙃

Both. My father had dogs. I had cats. I got along with both; I just think cats are better for city life.

AI doesn’t solve any problems.

It creates new ones. With the self-assured confidence that only a techbrodude billionaire could project.

(This is probably not a coincidence.)

That’s really weird to me.

If I’m playing a board game (like Xiangqi/Chinese Chess) what’s cool is when I spot an opportunity and exploit it. This is playing according to the rules of the game.

If I’m playing a card game (like Fight the Landlord) what’s cool is when I assemble a good combination of cards that drains my hand with inexorable play. Or when I find just the right timing to interfere with someone else draining their cards. Again this is playing according to the rules of the game.

In sportball, presumably when the audience is going wild at a cool play by some player they’re playing according to the rules of the game. (I can’t attest yeah or nay to this because sportball isn’t my vibe.) Is this not cool? (I’ll let sportball fans answer here.)

So why would RPGs be the exception to this? Why do you have to break the rules of play to do cool things?

That’s really weird to me.

He’s not talking about the touchscreen kiosk things. He’s talking about the drive-through AI order-takers. Which have pretty much been a disaster no matter where you go.

I’m talking from the global take on the economy, yes. This wave of AI will go the way of every previous wave: some niche products will use it effectively and the rest of the world will look back with keen embarrassment at this phase of history when people took LLMs seriously.

I mean there’s still practical uses for '50s-era “AI” out there. (“Symbolic AI” was it called?) But it is so tiny a segment it is basically nonexistent.

Every previous wave of AI died in the same hype/disappointment cycle. Yes each previous wave still has niche uses, but their economic activity is basically a rounding error.

They’re dead.

The bodies are just still twitching a little from the chemical reactions of deccomposition.

The current wave will do the same thing.

the reboot wasn’t so hot though

They rarely are.

Selling pre-rotted eggs? 🤣

Well thanks! Next time I’m in a position to buy some I will.

Evaporation when covered in clay is slowed by quite a bit, but yeah, 25+ years will still lose you volume.

This is exactly what happened with the three previous (or was it four?) waves of AI.

It was oversold. People got very cynical. Quiet rebranding behind the scenes let it continue life in the niches where it was appropriate.