Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Something very on-the-nose about investing 500b to build AI infrastructure and calling it “Stargate” A bit like Reagan “Star Wars” or Japan’s “5th gen computing” Great tech enters history obliquely. Cul de sacs start in on-the-nose ways, even if they achieve great heights. Eg internet as arpanet was oblique, space program that stagnated with Apollo was on-the-nose. Crypto was oblique, “private blockchains,” CBDCs and e-ID schemes are on-the-nose. The Alexnet genesis event and transformers were oblique, “alignment” tech is on the nose. Landing reusable boosters was oblique. SLS is on-the-nose. On-the-nose history-making goals are for politicians. Tech is most interesting when oblique. In the last decade SV tech in particular has lost its obliquity. Ironically, it now seems to start with ever-more ideological manifestos the way weak “alt” tech visions used to. Big money is always insecure so goes on-the-nose. The small money p,aging on the margins otoh is worth keeping an eye on.
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androidsixteen
@androidsixteen.eth
Sustaining vs disruptive innovations innit?
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
That too but I think I’m getting at a different aspect. The next AI goal shouldn’t even look like an AI goal.
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androidsixteen
@androidsixteen.eth
There’s a Conways law joke here about overfitting
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Kazi
@kazi
What’s the joke
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androidsixteen
@androidsixteen.eth
No idea, too lazy to find it
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