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Comment Re:Wrong premise. (Score 2, Interesting) 82

I see plenty of people around me living a life without work, or doing only a little work on their own terms, who are not in jail or dead, and often seem pretty happy. You have options. But no one is going to hand them to you on a platter. Capitalist societies have created an utterly unprecedented standard of living, not for the ultra wealthy, but for the masses. And social democracies have taken the edge off capitalism by ensuring a minimum standard of living that is still pretty good, to those who cannot provide for themselves. But screw you if you demand others to provide you with a living, instead of working for it yourself.

With that said, things did get out of control. Regulatory oversight is a joke, and so is antitrust regulation (or the enforcement of it). Companies becoming too large for our own good, and private wealth growing so large that they can simply buy politicians, legislators and governments. That's nothing new, but one would hope that we learned from past mistakes, and taken measures against that.

Though in all of this, the machines are merely tools, none of this happened because of the machines. Social media and AI made control easier, but before that people were controlled by other means. In my own country, there is not much variety of opinion on television, and almost all of the national and regional newspapers (as well as a TV channel) have fallen in the hands of 2 wealthy families, and it shows: variety in opinion has given way to a sameness, across publications that used to span the spectrum from left to right. And it's not just the ultra rich pulling the strings; here in Europe, politicians seem to be withdrawing within a class of their own, with their own agenda. People increasingly voting for radical right parties is not because people have become more right wing, or because they have been unduly influenced by AI or social media, but because they have become disillusioned with the mainstream politicians.

Comment Re:They always blame the wrong thing(s) (Score 1) 85

It makes sense to teach them about AI, what it is good for and what not to use it for. Just like how we learned how to use a calculator in primary school, after we learned manual multiplication and long division. A lesson for AI could be to ask students to write an essay, and teach them how to use AI to do research, let it help to give structure to their text, how to check sources and accuracy, and so on. It would be used as a tool a few times, to teach them about the tool, after they learn how to go about such things without using AI.

Comment Re:They always blame the wrong thing(s) (Score 2) 85

not just "how do you solve the following in mathematics?", but more, "you are trying to do this, can you figure out the steps needed to make it happen?"

And coding can be a very good teaching tool for that. That should be the goal of teaching coding in schools, that and trying to spark an interest in the subject in children. Not preparing them for a career in software engineering.

As for AI, it's not going away, and kids will be using it. So teach them the stuff about it they are less likely to pick up on their own. Such as the dangers and pitfalls.

Comment Re:Is this really what people will pay for? (Score 1) 181

That "Nitro" stuff makes zero sense rationally. My guess is pure appeal to vanity.

If you're vain enough to want to stand out with exclusive emojis or animated whatevers, then spending money on a Nitro subscription makes rational sense.

Comment Re:Which is it? (Score 5, Insightful) 127

It can destroy us if we entrust it with too much stuff. Let it run all the stores, and the logistics for those stores. And military logistics while we are at it. Maybe balance our power grid. Let it suggest governmental policy. Teach our kids.

It won't destroy us because it "decides" to; LLMs do not make decisions. It optimizes for certain goals, using shitty instructions and shitty training data. Which means that under certain conditions it can make completely unexpected and illogical actions, like those Chinese bipedal robots glitching out. So... it will destroy us because - under certain conditions - it will utterly suck at its job.

Comment Re:"rocket ambition dept"? (Score 4, Insightful) 98

Pioneering reusable rockets, manned launches to the ISS, a super heavy lifter, lowest launch cost on the planet, a launch cadence that looks like something from an SF novel, and a satellite constellation that brings in enough money to pretty much self-fund the development of their future spacecraft. And in case anyone wants to point out their income from lucrative launch deals with the US government, one should also consider not how much those contracts are costing the US taxpayer, but how much they are saving (compared to the next cheapest launch provider).

Say what you want about Musk, SpaceX is certainly delivering the goods when it comes to space flight.

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If you teach your children to like computers and to know how to gamble then they'll always be interested in something and won't come to no real harm.

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