[Ucalegon]

That is the thing about these conversations, is that the issue is potentiality. It comes back to Amara's Law; “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Its the same thing with nuclear energy in the 1950s about what could be without realizing that those potentials are not possible due to the limitations of the technology, and not stepping into the limitations realistically, that hampers the growth, and thus development, in the long term.

Sadly, there is way, way, way too much money in AGI, and the promise of AGI, for people to actually take a step back and understand the implications of what they are doing in the short, medium, or long term.

[suddenlybananas]

What was underestimated in the long term with nuclear power? I like nuclear power but I don't see what long-term effects were underestimated by people in the 50s.

[themagic80]

I guess an example would be short term. "A pocked nuclear reactor in every car powering our commute to work" vs long term change "Nuclear power powering vast datacenters that do most of the work for us"