I was just reading a piece the other day about how one of the two baker's dozen grandfathers of superconductors had his wife call in a panic after seeing the LK-99 news, worried about what this would mean for their child's future.
We as humanity must come together and put Pandora back in her box so we can leave future generations with only existentially threatening climate change and threats of nuclear annihilation, as opposed to an unexpected possibility of a deus ex machina.
Ignore those naive optimists who talk about things like opportunity costs inherent to delay or obstruction.
I've been raised on DECADES of Sci-Fi that have convinced me that superconductors are inherently alien and evil and the natural enemy of all humanity.
I think when the parent wrote "us" they were referring to humanity. My doormat has a non-zero chance of killing me, but zero chance of killing humanity, for example.
I didn't find it particularly funny but it's a good mirror to show how ridiculous the AI doomers are. I hope they are more widely ridiculed, they should have been from the start, especially the ones that know better. People have been way to accepting of their grift.
(And it's sad to see the story flagged, it's valid and timely satire, and "of interest to good hackers", I hope it's people without a sense of humor and not for political reasons. I mean that satirical story about the dev retiring stayed on front page for hours yesterday )
I had the opposite reaction. I thought this was funny but I also think there's a about a 10% chance AI will go really badly for humanity in the next 30 years and appreciated the future of life institute's letter.
I'm also sad to see it flagged. It's important to be able to laugh at yourself.
I don't know why some people consider artificial intelligence rivalling and surpassing humans more dangerous than rocks with useful conductive properties.
The person who had this thought should stop having more.
Sooner or later people will demonize pointless comedy like Monty Python as hate speech. In protest people will parrot sketches and become annoying as **.
One day some big wig editor will get fooled into publishing a story about consuming enough spam for health or about swallows carrying coconuts across long distances.
The punch line will be totally forgotten and the expose will seem cruel and vindictive. Just another terrible illustration of how AI imagery and fancy sounding research is just pure lies and nonsense.
No matter how cool and sexy sounding stuff like fusion energy or self cooling beer could be, the story is so unbelievable that even if it is true I can do nothing but wonder. Perhaps tech jumped the shark over a decade ago when a few MIT misfits thought to teach those guys a lesson with completely fake papers.
They were just saddened that they had to confess for the sake of the lesson which was never really learned.
If AI becomes cheaper than human labor, humans laborers across the globe will lose all of their power and leverage. A “pause” might not be a realistic solution, but this kind of parody isn’t any more helpful than climate change denial.
Comments
This is a parody of the letter about Gen AI right?
edit: for reference: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experime...
Oh, so it was written by a fan of AI, annoyed with critique of AI… That would explain why it's so bad - written using chat GPT ;)
This site truly is where humor goes to die
To be fair, I thought the Melatonin for food waste was comedy.
it's signed by "Dr. Eustace Thermomagnus", so yes
ha I just noticed the domain name too
Yes
I think it’s some ultimate “dad joke”
It has 293k signatures I just realized
I was just reading a piece the other day about how one of the two baker's dozen grandfathers of superconductors had his wife call in a panic after seeing the LK-99 news, worried about what this would mean for their child's future.
We as humanity must come together and put Pandora back in her box so we can leave future generations with only existentially threatening climate change and threats of nuclear annihilation, as opposed to an unexpected possibility of a deus ex machina.
Ignore those naive optimists who talk about things like opportunity costs inherent to delay or obstruction.
I've been raised on DECADES of Sci-Fi that have convinced me that superconductors are inherently alien and evil and the natural enemy of all humanity.
We must act now.
Won't anyone think of the children?
Wow. This pushes my buttons! And should redden the face of anyone asking for the same in the AI field.
It even has the plain-as-day conflicts of interest! Beautiful!
superconductors don’t have a non-zero chance of killing us.
So your complaining that this story is inappropriate for HN is really just because you don't agree with making fun of AI doomers?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37006515
everything has a non-zero chance of killing us.
I think when the parent wrote "us" they were referring to humanity. My doormat has a non-zero chance of killing me, but zero chance of killing humanity, for example.
living has a 100% chance of killing us
Anecdotally nothing has killed me yet, so clearly it can’t be a full 100%.
The heat death of the universe hasn't occurred yet, either.
I didn't find it particularly funny but it's a good mirror to show how ridiculous the AI doomers are. I hope they are more widely ridiculed, they should have been from the start, especially the ones that know better. People have been way to accepting of their grift.
(And it's sad to see the story flagged, it's valid and timely satire, and "of interest to good hackers", I hope it's people without a sense of humor and not for political reasons. I mean that satirical story about the dev retiring stayed on front page for hours yesterday )
I had the opposite reaction. I thought this was funny but I also think there's a about a 10% chance AI will go really badly for humanity in the next 30 years and appreciated the future of life institute's letter.
I'm also sad to see it flagged. It's important to be able to laugh at yourself.
Some of it's being fed by the companies themselves going "oooh, look how dangerous our new product is! But don't worry, we'll keep it safe..."
This is hilarious. Love the goofy names at the end
"Countess Valentina Quenchfield, Inheritor Emerald and Copper Mines Company"
Superconductors don’t resemble AI at all in their implications, so this parody falls flat for me.
The person who had this thought should stop having more.
Sooner or later people will demonize pointless comedy like Monty Python as hate speech. In protest people will parrot sketches and become annoying as **.
One day some big wig editor will get fooled into publishing a story about consuming enough spam for health or about swallows carrying coconuts across long distances.
The punch line will be totally forgotten and the expose will seem cruel and vindictive. Just another terrible illustration of how AI imagery and fancy sounding research is just pure lies and nonsense.
No matter how cool and sexy sounding stuff like fusion energy or self cooling beer could be, the story is so unbelievable that even if it is true I can do nothing but wonder. Perhaps tech jumped the shark over a decade ago when a few MIT misfits thought to teach those guys a lesson with completely fake papers.
They were just saddened that they had to confess for the sake of the lesson which was never really learned.
end of line
Good parody illustrates the ridiculousness of sama's attempt to form a cartel / regulatory capture.
This won't change the minds of any AI doomers, but it should give everyone else a chuckle.
If AI becomes cheaper than human labor, humans laborers across the globe will lose all of their power and leverage. A “pause” might not be a realistic solution, but this kind of parody isn’t any more helpful than climate change denial.
Pretty awful joke.. had me going until it hit the 6 month pause moment
Doesn't that make it a good joke?
I guess, but I’m checking HN for LK99 updates, because of the bs filter here… if I want garbage I’ll go to reddit.
I respect the effort of this satire, but the timing is kind of annoying.
You can flag it.
Wow, this really hits Poe's Law hard. Almost took it seriously.
293K signatures… Cute!
Should have been 273K, right?
"room temperature" is 20 degrees above that.
the Signatories list is so fun
Let's just wait for the superconducting turbo encabulator.
"LK99" is like a new SARM with 30x anabolic potency
Hacker News Karma
why halt R&D ? also to go from R&D to industrial process it will take much more than 6 months !
How about, no.
We may be on the verge of a massive transformation in so many industries, plus a major tool to help climate change.
Let's add proccess and stop people from doing science to move humanity forward is not a viable option.
Edit: Really should have read the 'authors'
It's telling about how ridiculous modern public discourse is that people are having to read to the authors to know if it's serious or not.
The giveaway is in the first sentence:
"acknowledged by top scientific institutions and Russian anime cat girls"