Re: Re: Encryption and advancement of AI and even more tools to come.

On 5/30/26 10:26 PM, Eli Schwartz wrote:
> On 5/30/26 7:59 AM, Dale wrote:
>
>> I don't really get what AI can do or can't do.  I know from reading some
>> threads, on -dev for example, that it can't do as much as some people
>> think.  At least not yet.  At this time tho, do we really know what it
>> will be doing next year, or ten years from now??
>
> There have been no meaningful advancements in humanity's scientific
> model of "artificial intelligence" and/or how to get there since, well,
> long before OpenAI and similar companies were created and rose to
> prominence.
>
> There have been routine advancements in the capabilities of Large
> Language Models (not the same thing as "artificial intelligence / AI"),
> but broadly speaking that means "humanity discovered how to get lots of
> funding to build bigger computers capable of running more and more
> powerful LLMs". It's not really pushing the envelope on what is possible
> -- only about pushing the envelope on what we have the resources to do
> in *practice*.
>
> You may still be scared of what the available LLMs on the market will be
> capable of doing next year, or in ten years from now. But don't be
> scared about a fundamental shift in our scientific understanding of what
> is possible.
>
> The market will eventually implode -- if for no other reason than that
> ever increasing amounts of capital resources are being poured into it
> without corresponding extraction of value, and civilization cannot
> forever expend resources without producing goods. A possible outcome is
> therefore that we lose the means of production, the machine of
> civilization grinds to a halt and cannot be rebooted, and we revert back
> to the dark ages.
>
> Be worried about that instead.
>


I'll be honest.  When I see people all of a sudden investing in 
something, I'm skeptical to say the least.  Most new(er) things that are 
good, take a while to catch on and move kinda slowly.  They don't go 
from nothing to a huge boom in a short time frame and it end well.  I 
don't know exactly how long AI and such has been in the works but it 
looks to me like there is far to much being pushed that way right now.  
I've read posts on -dev by some folks that I'm sure understand this 
better than me and to me, it seems this new AI thing is likely going to 
end badly.  What was that thing that built up and then bust in the late 
80's I think it was?  I recall a lot of people got their lunch ate over 
that mess.  Some went from rich to bust so fast, it didn't even have 
time to make their heads spin.

There is a lot that we can worry about and some of them we can't 
control.  There's all sorts of natural things that can be really bad and 
even sudden.  Then there is those things that we bring on ourselves.  We 
depend on a lot of things that can go wrong rather easily.  It's just 
like a power grid.  In some places, it runs on a razors edge to keep 
going.  The least thing, no power.  There are a lot of things like that 
and some of them involve computing.

I don't know what the future of AI or quantum computing is going to be 
like anymore than I can say if some solar flare is going to come our way 
and cook us like a well roasted chicken.  Thing about the computer 
stuff, we can control most of that.  We can also keep up with the 
dangers that may be coming, if any.

I will be glad when the AI build up is over.  The price of computer 
stuff is crazy.  I did notice that one particular hard drive price 
actually went down the other day.  I'm hoping it is going to continue to 
do that until things get back to a reasonable cost. I've read in a lot 
of places that the AI build up is really taking a toll on the computer 
stuff.  Heck, even lithium batteries went up. Gotta have those backup 
power systems don't they?  LOL  I was wanting to build a UPS type system 
that would run my fridge, freezer, puter and TV when the power goes 
out.  The price of batteries went nuts tho.

I guess at some point in the future, near or far, we'll know how this 
turns out.  Let's just hope we are prepared for it.  ;-)

Dale

:-)  :-)