the idea that a "singularity" is possible is just the idea that you can turn "mistaking a sigmoid for an exponential" into a millenarian religion
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That 'supposedly' is the clue.
(My guess: they are hardcore rationalists who took that position in order to flatter their own egos ("*I'm* too *smart* to believe in the Sky Bully") and so didn't think that position through. They are also so insulated from reality by their wealth that they don't know how to handle being wrong about something. So now they deal with the downsides of that choice by techbro-inventing religion from scrstch^W SF.)
(A techbro would rather sacrifice the world on the altar of his dark GPU gods than go to therapy.)
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@glyph I've seen enough movies to know that the whole thing will come crashing down due to a very tiny inconsequential unnoticed design flaw. You know, like an expired SSL certificate.
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@glyph This *strongly* depends on what you mean by "singularity". I think you're conflating that with "hard takeoff paperclips scenario" or something.
I can just barely (barely!) imagine a future where someone manages to use AI to get a more efficient form of AI, which would allow further bootstrapping without requiring more hardware. Same hardware gets more compute.
You're spot-on about the supply chain limitations, though. Good luck to the AI that wants to dig up more cobalt or whatever.
@varx imagining stuff is easy though. I can imagine lots of stuff
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casual thinkpieces and lazy attempts at scicomm are what has set me off but the actual thing I'm mad about is that we are ruled by people with a child's understanding of the world and the economy and that's actually really bad
These children have the full backing of trillion dollar petrostate despots & oil oligarchs terrified of a fossil fuel phase out.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-17/openai-anthropic-deals-power-abu-dhabi-s-100-billion-ai-betAI is the fossil fuel industry's ticket to keeping fossil fuel prices high.
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-google-hand-dissident-data-to-saudi-arabia-activists-say-2023-7Gulf states want to be a global version of the Russian Internet Research Agency's hack-for-hire business model.
The AI singularity is just a euphemism for looting others assets.
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@glyph I’m not an AI doomer and I pretty much agree with your whole thread, but something to consider: when I think of AI taking over humanity, I see The Matrix more than Terminator. A hypothetical super intelligent AI wouldn’t necessarily need complete self-replication ability… it just needs the ability to influence humans enough to have them do the parts it can’t.
If you think about it, we’ve been building tech designed specifically to manipulate human behavior since the advent of social media… and it’s effective. If humanity were any good at protecting itself or organizing for the greater good, the perverse reward systems of capitalism would’ve been brought into check long before US oligarchs like Musk and Zuck could have been able to amass their power.
In a hypothetical world where machines rule, the more likely scenario is a majority of humans self-oppressing because they’ve been manipulated into it by adjustments to the algorithms that feed them the information they use to establish reality. We become part of the system.
The only real difference between that world and today is that today it’s a handful of billionaires controlling the algorithms. Replace Zuck and a few others with sufficiently capable AI and is it really that unbelievable that society would just keep cranking out more machines despite a slow degradation of quality of life?
Anyway - great thread and a fun topic to kick around. Thanks for posting it.
@mathaetaes @glyph This. The scary part is the brainrotted human fans rushing to tear down millennia of progress in a decade, not anything technical.
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These children have the full backing of trillion dollar petrostate despots & oil oligarchs terrified of a fossil fuel phase out.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-17/openai-anthropic-deals-power-abu-dhabi-s-100-billion-ai-betAI is the fossil fuel industry's ticket to keeping fossil fuel prices high.
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-google-hand-dissident-data-to-saudi-arabia-activists-say-2023-7Gulf states want to be a global version of the Russian Internet Research Agency's hack-for-hire business model.
The AI singularity is just a euphemism for looting others assets.
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Oil profits fund the AI spyware & election meddling necessary for ubiquitous surveillance.
As the planet fries, oil oligarchs need a means to quell dissent & revolutions while laundering their money.
https://popular.info/p/billionaire-surveillance-enthusiastThey're laundering their cash in a rush, via American tech, before the citizens of those countries realize how they're being looted & pillaged and launch revolutions like the Arab Spring.
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Oil profits fund the AI spyware & election meddling necessary for ubiquitous surveillance.
As the planet fries, oil oligarchs need a means to quell dissent & revolutions while laundering their money.
https://popular.info/p/billionaire-surveillance-enthusiastThey're laundering their cash in a rush, via American tech, before the citizens of those countries realize how they're being looted & pillaged and launch revolutions like the Arab Spring.
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How The Arab Spring Affects Saudi Society
Revolt continues to pressure governments along Saudi Arabia's borders. Saudi Arabia experts Bernard Haykel and Toby Jones explain the effect of the Arab Spring on Saudi society and government, and what the turmoil across the Middle East and North Africa may mean for the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
NPR (www.npr.org)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/world/europe/trump-lauder-ukraine-lithium.html
That's why Trump attacked Iran. Before the uprising by the young people of Iran could get ahead & the covert sale of sanctioned oil was revealed.
https://popular.info/p/update-after-sending-billions-toTrump's fossil fuel overlords don't want examinations of the fossil corruption looting every nation's national treasuries.
https://popular.info/p/kushner-breaks-pledge-seeks-5-billionGulf royals are looting like Putin's oligarchs loot Ukraine & Hungary and AI launders the cash.
Venture capital firm hit with $216 million penalty for ‘egregious’ violations of US sanctions against Russian billionaire - ICIJ
The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the firm managed a $20 million investment for Suleiman Kerimov, a member of Putin’s inner circle, after he was sanctioned in 2018.
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (www.icij.org)
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How The Arab Spring Affects Saudi Society
Revolt continues to pressure governments along Saudi Arabia's borders. Saudi Arabia experts Bernard Haykel and Toby Jones explain the effect of the Arab Spring on Saudi society and government, and what the turmoil across the Middle East and North Africa may mean for the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
NPR (www.npr.org)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/world/europe/trump-lauder-ukraine-lithium.html
That's why Trump attacked Iran. Before the uprising by the young people of Iran could get ahead & the covert sale of sanctioned oil was revealed.
https://popular.info/p/update-after-sending-billions-toTrump's fossil fuel overlords don't want examinations of the fossil corruption looting every nation's national treasuries.
https://popular.info/p/kushner-breaks-pledge-seeks-5-billionGulf royals are looting like Putin's oligarchs loot Ukraine & Hungary and AI launders the cash.
Venture capital firm hit with $216 million penalty for ‘egregious’ violations of US sanctions against Russian billionaire - ICIJ
The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the firm managed a $20 million investment for Suleiman Kerimov, a member of Putin’s inner circle, after he was sanctioned in 2018.
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (www.icij.org)
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Russia offered U.S. a deal for minerals in Ukrainian territory it seized
Russian officials proposed to Trump administration officials an agreement for the U.S. to make money off critical minerals and metals under Moscow’s control.
NBC News (www.nbcnews.com)
The financial services industry of the UK & USA are always willing to lend fascists a hand.
https://nationalpost.com/news/how-six-months-before-the-second-world-war-britain-gave-hitler-9-million-in-gold-that-belonged-to-another-country
Documents reveal Bank of England sold stolen gold for Nazis
Archived material details how gold bars plundered from Czechoslovakia were sold on behalf of Germany's central bank in 1939
The Independent (www.independent.co.uk)
How Bank of England 'helped Nazis sell gold stolen from Czechs'
Official account of what many believe was British central bank's most shameful episode revealed more than 70 years after event
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
Russian invasions provide a handy excuse for delay of restitution
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/19/russia-warsaw-pact-1968-invasion-czechoslovakia
Nazi Gold: Why Hitler's Germany was Desperate for Bullion
During World War II, the German Nazi government robbed more than 600 tons of European gold
TIME (time.com)
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resources run out. processes hit bottlenecks. optimizations reach physical limits. perpetual motion machines are impossible for reasons that are pretty well understood
@glyph Recursion cannot be infinite.
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