technology commentary

@bayeslord (bayes) — 2h There was a Scott Alexander post a few years ago where he quoted the classic von Neumann essay "Can We Survive Technology?", and at the end in reference to a particular quote he says, "this sounds suspiciously like worlds smartest man admitting he's not sure what to do". I'm still not sure how much I agree with Scott's characterization of von Neumann. But today when I look around, even among the world's most intelligent and insightful people, it rings true. Everyone is struggling to make sense of it all at once. In the essay, von Neumann says the great globe itself is in crisis, it is far too small for our new weapons and our unstable governments. This remains true in many ways; we still have the power to destroy our home planet and everything living here. But it strikes me that the complexity of coordination around nuclear weapons was far simpler than what we face now, despite being it unprecedentedly difficult at the time. Today, our collective mind is far too small for the world we have conceived. Along with everything else, the depth and breadth of change in the world is triggering the epistemic singularity of legend. And no one is prepared to grapple with it. We seem to lack the tools. [post continues below frame, no engagement counts visible]