What Did You Buy Today?

[Otter]

(05-04-2021, 02:06 PM)fenders53 Wrote: I know just enough to believe it's not going to zero, and will be OK or much better if I keep the faith.

There really is an element of faith, given our limited ability to comprehend how the thing does what it does. Computers can now perceive things in data that we cannot, and can interpret those things that we do not perceive in a way that meaningfully guides human decision-making. That whole mess of voodoo is going to become absolutely essential to the functioning of the global economy in the coming decades. 

If you've ever watched the show "Brockmire" with Hank Azaria (highly recommend), we are rapidly hurtling towards a future where Limon will be guiding most of the key decisions of our government and business. It seems weird now, but will be as mundane as "Hey Alexa, what's the weather today" in a decade. 

Arthur C. Clarke famously said that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." We are now crossing thresholds in computational power that computer scientists have predicted for decades would lead to advances in technology and business that will be immensely useful to us, but that we will never fully understand (i.e., magic). If we manage to stick around, the next 20 years are going to be pretty wild on the technology front (beyond just PLTR and what it does). The rate of change continues to accelerate. I remember using pay phones, mailing letters, and consulting my World Book Encyclopedias before Airbnb, Amazon, FaceBook, Google, Netflix, and Uber existed. If you could use a time machine to go back to 1993, how would you even explain these companies (and their massive valuations) to people then? In the 1960s Gene Rodenberry imagined the communicator as 23rd Century Tech. iPhones are way better. Many of the companies driving market performance in 20 years may only just be getting started, not exist yet, or completely reinvent themselves from their current line of business. Some of the presently unforeseen use cases for technology that drive the economy in 20 years may only be foreseen because a machine suggests it. Lots of weird stuff is going to happen.