I cite Vinge here: we simply can’t imagine weirdtopia. C’m on: 6 billion uploaded humans recursively self-modifying. There will be so many variations and weirdnesses that you could never list them all, and a significant subset of them would be beyond our cognitive ability to model due to intelligence smarter than us
Furthermore, I think a lot of people here might be surprised to find out how much weird shit there is in real life all around them.
I was chatting to a student at a very good UK university last night, and the topic of understanding science came up. I asked her how mobile phones worked, and she said she neither knew nor cared. When pressed, she said “magic”, and when pressed even more, she said it had something to do with “fibre optic cables”. I asked her why light bulbs lit up, and she said it probably had something to do with a chemical reaction, “you know, like a glow stick”.
I was genuinely shocked.
I have since resolved to go read some Shakespeare so that I don’t commit the mirror image of this ignorance.
I cite Vinge here: we simply can’t imagine weirdtopia. C’m on: 6 billion uploaded humans recursively self-modifying. There will be so many variations and weirdnesses that you could never list them all, and a significant subset of them would be beyond our cognitive ability to model due to intelligence smarter than us
Furthermore, I think a lot of people here might be surprised to find out how much weird shit there is in real life all around them.
I was chatting to a student at a very good UK university last night, and the topic of understanding science came up. I asked her how mobile phones worked, and she said she neither knew nor cared. When pressed, she said “magic”, and when pressed even more, she said it had something to do with “fibre optic cables”. I asked her why light bulbs lit up, and she said it probably had something to do with a chemical reaction, “you know, like a glow stick”.
I was genuinely shocked.
I have since resolved to go read some Shakespeare so that I don’t commit the mirror image of this ignorance.