The Internet happened. Stop acting so shocked

&gt; Now, we’re months away from AI reaching cosmologically significant powers, making everything that came before it—humanity, the cognitive revolution, writing, the telegraph, smartphones—seem insignificant by comparison.<p>What a dystopian world view. Even if AGI comes to fruition, which is not certain, that does not invalidate humanity&#x27;s significance.

&gt;Now, we’re months away from AI reaching cosmologically significant powers, making everything that came before it—humanity, the cognitive revolution, writing, the telegraph, smartphones—seem insignificant by comparison.<p>I&#x27;d bet my life savings against $100 that we will not have strong AI with &quot;cosmologically significant powers&quot; that makes &quot;everything that came before it...seem insignificant&quot; in less than 12 months. I&#x27;d give 10:1 on two years, and 2:1 on five years.

On the one hand - yeah. If you bothered to listen to grandma&#x27;s stories when you were a kid, you&#x27;re quite aware that the world changed a LOT between when she was a little girl, and your own childhood. Only an idiot would expect change to stop.<p>OTOH, there were thousands of generations where very little changed in an average human lifetime. People&#x27;s worldviews are far more instinctual than most care to admit, and &quot;steady-state&quot; instincts would have been selected for.