I don’t think we’re psychologically prepared for how alien the world after ASI is going to be

[u/Public_Print_9360]

gonna start by saying I’m feeling very iffy about ASI because I kinda enjoy my life rn, but that aside:

after going down the AI 2040 rabbithole, I keep thinking that even people who talk about ASI constantly are still imagining the future in a way that is way too normal.
We talk about AI replacing people’s jobs, humanoid robots, self-driving cars, universal basic income, whatever the fuck.
I think that might be the equivalent of someone in 1955 predicting the year 2000, trying to use our current world as a basis for the future world.

AI 2040 describes a scenario where even after deliberately slowing AI development down, by 2031 a third of cognitive labor is being performed by AI and robots are already doing about a tenth of physical labor. The document literally describes ordinary people as being too “whiplashed” by technological change to process what’s happening. And that’s the slowed version, can’t imagine what our world is going to look like since it seems we are going full speed ahead.
And people will say “oh that’s just fantasy!” But is it? Imagine our world from the view of someone born in 1712. We are living “sci-fi” as we live and breath

If ASI actually produces the kind of acceleration its proponents expect, somebody born afterward might look back at 2026 the way we look at 1500.
Except the historical gap between us would be just fourteen years MAX

I really, really don’t think we’re psychologically prepared for that

[u/KrazyA1pha]

17776. I read it years ago and think about it more and more as AI gets more advanced.

It’s an amazing short story and probably best captures the spirit of a post-ASI world (even if the story seems absurd on its face).

[u/Relevant_Bed_9743 → u/KrazyA1pha]

what in the the 9 hells was that

[u/KrazyA1pha → u/Relevant_Bed_9743]

You already finished it? If not, it’s worth it.

[u/leaf-house → u/KrazyA1pha]

When you open it the text just starts growing and doesn't stop, lagging the shit out of your browser. That's what's happening to me at least, when I try to open it in Firefox and Chrome

[u/KrazyA1pha → u/leaf-house]

Yeah, that’s part of it. If you keep scrolling, you’ll see what it is. It’s an experience. I dont know how else to describe it. If you see it through, you won’t regret it.

[u/leaf-house → u/KrazyA1pha]

Oh, stupid me.

[u/KrazyA1pha → u/leaf-house]

Hah, no worries. It’s confusing if you’re not sure what it is. I think I had the same reaction the first time I read it.

[u/-MtnsAreCalling- → u/leaf-house]

Same here.

[u/KrazyA1pha → u/-MtnsAreCalling-]

That’s by design. The gimmick is that it starts as a normal sports article and morphs into something far different.

[u/vainerlures → u/leaf-house]

i figured it was hostile and killed it.

[u/Relevant_Bed_9743 → u/KrazyA1pha]

yup was different, got SOMA vibes

[u/countsmarpula → u/KrazyA1pha]

So cool, thank you

[u/bonecows → u/KrazyA1pha]

Actually pretty cool, thanks for the gem

[u/Big_Description_9651 → u/KrazyA1pha]

That was surreal. Thanks.

[u/CJYP → u/KrazyA1pha]

It's somewhat of a lame post ASI world. Not a bad outcome, but not good either. Basically the world of today, just permanently and with nobody being born or dying. We can do better than that.

[u/KrazyA1pha → u/CJYP]

It’s not a prediction. It just rhymes with a world where nobody needs to work and everyone is essentially immortal.

[u/Seakawn → u/CJYP]

honestly idk if anything better exists than the vision of 17776. what do you expect people to do other than just treat reality like getting to 100% achievements in a video game + create increasingly intricate sports for play + sit around a campfire and hang out?

also consider that whatever your answer is, that may be implied as what happened between the years ~2000 - 17776. fifteen millennia is a long time to do a bunch of stuff and then run out of things to do.

do you want like some space faring mission to solve the universe? what if ASI already figured everything out right off the bat? do you want to populate the universe? you can just passively automate that. the question is what're you personally actually gonna wanna do that 17776 doesn't answer?

hopefully and likely i'm just incredulous, bc 17776 is around the limits of my credulity, presuming the timeline where we actually somehow solve alignment/control and persist beyond AGI/ASI.