AI is the most useful technology ever developed
And it’s not even close
AI isn’t overhyped, it’s underhyped
Massively. Still.
Here’s why most people are still underestimating AI, and what’s about to happen to society:
Most people are underestimating AI because they're thinking about it backwards
Instead of thinking about it as a new tool, it's better to think about it as a new INTERFACE to humanity's ultimate tool:
Language. Pictures & symbols w/meaning
The A/V world of human consciousness
It's easy to forget language is technology
Not just tech, but the basis of society
Humanity's second killer app
(The first was control of fire, leading to radical growth in brain size)
Symbolic language is used for:
-Seeing ideas outside our heads
-Sharing the substance of thought
-Combining and building on the ideas of others
Result: An ultimate learning tool to create better tools
When writing was first invented, it was the first time in history people could speak directly to future generations in their own words
The consequences of this ability are astounding
Because the capacity for change doesn’t happen within a brain, it happens *between* brains
E.O. Wilson once said:
Language is the greatest evolutionary advance since the eukaryotic cell
Language freed the mind from the animal to be creative, thence to enter and imagine other worlds infinite in time and space
Our ability to imagine worlds “Opened a fast lane of cultural evolution, bypassing the traffic jams of genetic evolution...
...This is accordingly the point when history declared its independence from biology.”
It was the first time humans could cooperate at scale
With language, “Our minds can travel lightning-fast through space and time, and, with increasing scientific precision, visit any place on the planet, and beyond.
Language is not just a creation of humanity, it *is* humanity.”
This is what people are missing about AI
Now, instead of using language as an interface to share knowledge from one brain to another
We can use AI as an interface to all collective human knowledge and imagination at once
twitter.com/neal_katyal/status/1622433335132782597?s=20&t=GfTtJWDKBOMABaKsozhDJQ
In computing, Moravec's Paradox states:
Easy problems for humans are hard for computers, and vice versa.
What some two-year-olds do today is still hard for some computers.
But now we're moving fast from left to right:
We can, with these new interfaces, draw on the combined consciousness of our species, and make stunning progress
Because, as others have noted, progress starts with rebellion
Specifically, “rebellion against authority in regard to knowledge”
What's mind-blowing about releases like ChatGPT is they solve two design problems at once:
1. A language & syntax problem made up of words and sentences
2. A meaning & structure problem made up of concepts & themes
These can't be solved apart; they have to be solved together
So, where is AI going, and what will people use AI to do?
Here's a peek:
Culture was created when humans began to understand language
In 10,000 years with language, we've now taught machines to understand language in a profound way
This is now the warp-speed lane of cultural evolution, with machines creating intelligence
People aren't adopting AI because of the hype, they're adopting it because it's useful
It's useful *right now* and improving and at exponential rate
We are now continuously decreasing the half-life of human adaptation
Why is AI the most useful technology ever developed?
Because artists and engineers and scholars will now use this new interface to all of human language and thinking
And the health of a society is measured by the output of its artists and engineers and scholars
It goes both ways, of course.
Language in the hands of AI will empower our creativity and impact our emotions like never before.
Making us, as Wilson says, ever-more supremely advanced, and ever-more supremely dangerous.
It's not just that you can now summon the storehouse of human knowledge and play with ideas outside your head
Now you can make them appear through an interface magically, naturally & instantly
Like the Retina display: people don't notice...
twitter.com/levie/status/1617266717943824384?s=20&t=oEYeL0gmhEVBvBGr0Sw9pwAI
AI is useful for the same reason curious people are useful
And for the same reason curious people in the science and humanities make progress
A creative person:
Every other technology ever developed pales in comparison to what AI is now poised to do to our society
And it's not even close
Most of humanity has never used some of the most advanced AI interfaces
They haven't experienced the before-and-after moment
But more people will...
And more people will get better and better at using some of these interfaces to natural human language, the most powerful and useful technology ever developed
Now with yet another technology sitting on top of it
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I believe what I wrote and think more people should recognize what's coming
I'm following my curiosity about the world; follow me @jmikolay while I share what I learn
Justin Mikolay 💻
@jmikolay
Inspiring & helping you to create & put something new into the world. Love writing, knowledge management & the creative process. Fmr speechwriter & submariner.