Good one today Bill. Your last sentence says a lot, "And so it shall be in the brave new world of AI — a counterfeit world, quality smothered beneath quantity, and humbug all the way down."
A continuous "Incestuous" relationship. It seems to me, humanity will loose it's ability to "think" and solve problems for themselves. Will people know how to change a tire, fix a faucet, paint a wall...when there is no electricity to run their computer or phone? Original thinking is the most valuable trait of a human from my viewpoint.
I’ve loved Bill’s writing since my days on the Doug Casey forums—and the founders’ offer of $10 a month forever may still be the best investment recommendation I ever followed.
“Clowns and Jokers,” published just 23 days after ChatGPT debuted, remains one of Bill’s finest pieces:
Curiously, it contains none of today’s telltale em dashes. Looking through the archives—with ChatGPT’s help, no less—they seem to begin appearing regularly around April 2024, suggesting that either AI, or a new editorial hand with a fondness for long punctuation, had joined the team.
And good for Bill. Someone older than I am, still learning, adapting, and making use of a remarkable new tool—even while writing today about what that tool cannot do.
I use AI every day.
Including, naturally, to help me research and write this reply—with em dashes.
What’s truly hilarious is that it took me more than two years to notice the change. Then this morning, Bill used different colours in his text, and suddenly it was an AHA! moment—a flashlight directly in the face, if you will.
Almost as though he were saying to the rest of us:
“It may be useless—but I’m still going to use it.”
"Dollars cheapen as they multiply and so do ideas", Bill writes. I understand then nature of dollars vis-a-vis inflation, but more ideas make them less valuable? Ideas push the boundaries of human development and innovation, they don't become less valuable rather they become the value.
But, Tom, how do people learn to think if all they have to do is to turn to Claude for creativity? Ideas, I agree, are the birthplace of innovation but ideas come from thinking and pondering. I see streams of people (of all ages) staring relentlessly at the screen of their iPhone. Even today, toddlers are given iPads to keep them busy. How does that produce ideas? I use Claude (instead of google) to look things up - like where is "Kinshasa" as Bill sited it today (capital of the Republic of Congo and one of the largest cities in Africa) and I had never heard of it. But to use it to "create" instead of learning how to do that on one's own - where does that leave innovation?
How about this for a different angle of the future value of AI: the voice of one of the 168 children slaughtered by wonderfully holier than thou Americans and Israelis?
Does the hype about AI remind anyone else of this Twilight Zone episode "The Brain Center at Whipple's"? Maybe one day AI will replace not only us but Peter Theil, Elon Musk, Sam Altman and the rest of the Tech Bros too.
Good one today Bill. Your last sentence says a lot, "And so it shall be in the brave new world of AI — a counterfeit world, quality smothered beneath quantity, and humbug all the way down."
A continuous "Incestuous" relationship. It seems to me, humanity will loose it's ability to "think" and solve problems for themselves. Will people know how to change a tire, fix a faucet, paint a wall...when there is no electricity to run their computer or phone? Original thinking is the most valuable trait of a human from my viewpoint.
Jim Marshall
I’ve loved Bill’s writing since my days on the Doug Casey forums—and the founders’ offer of $10 a month forever may still be the best investment recommendation I ever followed.
“Clowns and Jokers,” published just 23 days after ChatGPT debuted, remains one of Bill’s finest pieces:
https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/p/clowns-and-jokers
Curiously, it contains none of today’s telltale em dashes. Looking through the archives—with ChatGPT’s help, no less—they seem to begin appearing regularly around April 2024, suggesting that either AI, or a new editorial hand with a fondness for long punctuation, had joined the team.
And good for Bill. Someone older than I am, still learning, adapting, and making use of a remarkable new tool—even while writing today about what that tool cannot do.
I use AI every day.
Including, naturally, to help me research and write this reply—with em dashes.
What’s truly hilarious is that it took me more than two years to notice the change. Then this morning, Bill used different colours in his text, and suddenly it was an AHA! moment—a flashlight directly in the face, if you will.
Almost as though he were saying to the rest of us:
“It may be useless—but I’m still going to use it.”
Bravo, Bill. Bravo.
"Dollars cheapen as they multiply and so do ideas", Bill writes. I understand then nature of dollars vis-a-vis inflation, but more ideas make them less valuable? Ideas push the boundaries of human development and innovation, they don't become less valuable rather they become the value.
But, Tom, how do people learn to think if all they have to do is to turn to Claude for creativity? Ideas, I agree, are the birthplace of innovation but ideas come from thinking and pondering. I see streams of people (of all ages) staring relentlessly at the screen of their iPhone. Even today, toddlers are given iPads to keep them busy. How does that produce ideas? I use Claude (instead of google) to look things up - like where is "Kinshasa" as Bill sited it today (capital of the Republic of Congo and one of the largest cities in Africa) and I had never heard of it. But to use it to "create" instead of learning how to do that on one's own - where does that leave innovation?
How about this for a different angle of the future value of AI: the voice of one of the 168 children slaughtered by wonderfully holier than thou Americans and Israelis?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZoEbr7oXkw/?igsh=azZ3Zjg3MXpueW5j
Does the hype about AI remind anyone else of this Twilight Zone episode "The Brain Center at Whipple's"? Maybe one day AI will replace not only us but Peter Theil, Elon Musk, Sam Altman and the rest of the Tech Bros too.