This has parallels with how the factory-building game Factorio presents things. The thing that makes Factorio fun[1] is how it abstracts away those pesky prohibitively complex nuances of manufacturing & automation so that everything can feasiblybe automated quickly and scaled ad infinitum. For example:
The conveyor belts run on magic (they don’t require any power, which isn’t really explained considering every other electrical thing in the game requires pseudo-realistic levels of electrical input.)
The assembling machines (essentially Autofacs) don’t require any retooling/tuning/cleaning/etc to switch between completely different recipes seamlessly)
No manufacturing equipment ever wears out or needs physical maintenance.
Inserters (robot hands that handle objects to and from conveyor belts and the various structures) detect objects flawlessly and reliably and any kind can handle any type of object (and furthermore object sizes are abstracted such that all take the same amount of space on a conveyor belt)
Electrical usage is abstracted so that you only need to keep generated power >= usage or things will start to slow down/get rolling blackouts. You don’t need to worry about pesky throughput tolerances on cables, one small wooden power pole and its wire can handle just as much as a giant cross-country steel behemoth.
& thousands of other small details abstracted away for simplicity.
Overall I hope we are able to progress to Autofacs in real life, I just don’t see it being nearly as straightforward as any of us would prefer. Not that I want to discourage anyone from making the attempt! I just hope that they know what they are getting into.
Really really fun for engineering-minded people like myself. Fun-hazard level — If you’ve never tried it before it might be wise not to unless you have incredible self discipline or several days of free time in the near future; It can be addicting.
I’ve been avoiding Factorio. I watched a couple of videos of people playing it, and it was obviously the most interesting game in the world, and if I tried it my entire life would get sucked in. So I did the stoic thing, and simply didn’t allow myself to be tempted.
You bring up a good point that the amount of picky details that need to be dealt with is huge. I basically think that this whole plan is infeasible unless the controlling AI is near or above AGI. So, by the time such a project could be launched, there will be a lot of other disruptive things also happening in the world.
The fact that this could become reality inless than 5 years from now is both exciting and terrifying. Disruptive change indeed!
This has parallels with how the factory-building game Factorio presents things. The thing that makes Factorio fun[1] is how it abstracts away those pesky prohibitively complex nuances of manufacturing & automation so that everything can feasibly be automated quickly and scaled ad infinitum. For example:
The conveyor belts run on magic (they don’t require any power, which isn’t really explained considering every other electrical thing in the game requires pseudo-realistic levels of electrical input.)
The assembling machines (essentially Autofacs) don’t require any retooling/tuning/cleaning/etc to switch between completely different recipes seamlessly)
No manufacturing equipment ever wears out or needs physical maintenance.
Inserters (robot hands that handle objects to and from conveyor belts and the various structures) detect objects flawlessly and reliably and any kind can handle any type of object (and furthermore object sizes are abstracted such that all take the same amount of space on a conveyor belt)
Electrical usage is abstracted so that you only need to keep generated power >= usage or things will start to slow down/get rolling blackouts. You don’t need to worry about pesky throughput tolerances on cables, one small wooden power pole and its wire can handle just as much as a giant cross-country steel behemoth.
& thousands of other small details abstracted away for simplicity.
Overall I hope we are able to progress to Autofacs in real life, I just don’t see it being nearly as straightforward as any of us would prefer. Not that I want to discourage anyone from making the attempt! I just hope that they know what they are getting into.
Really really fun for engineering-minded people like myself.
Fun-hazard level — If you’ve never tried it before it might be wise not to unless you have incredible self discipline or several days of free time in the near future; It can be addicting.
I’ve been avoiding Factorio. I watched a couple of videos of people playing it, and it was obviously the most interesting game in the world, and if I tried it my entire life would get sucked in. So I did the stoic thing, and simply didn’t allow myself to be tempted.
You bring up a good point that the amount of picky details that need to be dealt with is huge. I basically think that this whole plan is infeasible unless the controlling AI is near or above AGI. So, by the time such a project could be launched, there will be a lot of other disruptive things also happening in the world.
The fact that this could become reality inless than 5 years from now is both exciting and terrifying. Disruptive change indeed!