> This is remarkable to me because I would say that right now is one of the most exciting times to invest ever.
You sidestepped their points and jumped straight to investment opportunities and iPhones and VR and LLMs. He actually said tech is not used to improve people's lives and that I have observed to be true during my 22+ years in the tech area.
What he said resonates strongly with many programmers who are working on the ground: the tech is not used for absolutely anything at all that tangibly and positively changes the world, companies just want to build strong moat and keep corporate customers with binding contracts -- and there's almost zero actual technical progress, too.
(Also, "older" in this case does not do what you think it does: it means they finally got a realistic view of the situation and are no longer looking through rose-tinted glasses. This is a good thing and shouldn't be a condemning factor, and your comment kind of makes it sound like you use it that way.)
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Let me demonstrate my point.
Here's an investment idea: smartphone app that photographs your fridge (could use LIDAR as well, why not) and catalogues everything in it, and uses magic sauce to remind you when to stock back on items X or Y. Difficult, right? Who cares! I'd buy it, hell, I'd even subscribe for such a service. Let's go. Invest in it. Stick to it until it's perfect, no matter how long it takes and no matter how much financial losses it incurs until it's done.
Arguably this is easier to do now with multimodal LLMs. I say this as someone who is skeptical of the hype around the utility of LLMs. But it can probably catalog your fridge. Was that worth boiling the oceans?
What's your point? That some actual improvements to the lives of people will accelerate climate change, and thus we should not pursue it?
If so, OK, let's find another way that doesn't consume 300+ watts per GPU for thousands of GPUs. Again, let's go -- let's see some actual technical progress.
But we don't have that. We're stuck. And that's what the original article says and I support its thesis.
You sidestepped their points and jumped straight to investment opportunities and iPhones and VR and LLMs. He actually said tech is not used to improve people's lives and that I have observed to be true during my 22+ years in the tech area.
What he said resonates strongly with many programmers who are working on the ground: the tech is not used for absolutely anything at all that tangibly and positively changes the world, companies just want to build strong moat and keep corporate customers with binding contracts -- and there's almost zero actual technical progress, too.
(Also, "older" in this case does not do what you think it does: it means they finally got a realistic view of the situation and are no longer looking through rose-tinted glasses. This is a good thing and shouldn't be a condemning factor, and your comment kind of makes it sound like you use it that way.)
---
Let me demonstrate my point.
Here's an investment idea: smartphone app that photographs your fridge (could use LIDAR as well, why not) and catalogues everything in it, and uses magic sauce to remind you when to stock back on items X or Y. Difficult, right? Who cares! I'd buy it, hell, I'd even subscribe for such a service. Let's go. Invest in it. Stick to it until it's perfect, no matter how long it takes and no matter how much financial losses it incurs until it's done.
Will you do it?