The Intelligence Age 2024-09-23 Sam Altman
Key quotes and translations from The Intelligence Age
Society itself is highly intelligent
We are more capable not because of genetic change, but because we benefit from the infrastructure of society being way smarter and more capable than any one of us; in an important sense, society itself is a form of advanced intelligence. Translation: “Our enhanced abilities are not due to genetic changes, but because we benefit from a social infrastructure that is much wiser and more capable than each of us. In an important sense, society itself is a kind of advanced intelligence.”
From Sand to Artificial Intelligence
Here is one narrow way to look at human history: after thousands of years of compounding scientific discovery and technological progress, we have figured out how to melt sand, add some impurities, arrange it with astonishing precision at extraordinarily tiny scale into computer chips, run energy through it, and end up with systems capable of creating increasingly capable artificial intelligence. Translation: “One narrow view of human history is this: after thousands of years of scientific discovery and technological advancement, we have discovered how to melt sand, add impurities, place them on a computer chip on an extremely small scale with amazing precision, and channel energy into it to create systems that can produce increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence We have found a way to create systems that can produce.”
lamp-lighting husband metaphor
Many of the jobs we do today would have looked like trifling wastes of time to people a few hundred years ago, but nobody is looking back at the past, wishing they were a lamplighter. If a lamplighter could see the world today, he would think the prosperity all around him was unimaginable. Translation: “Many of the tasks we do today would have seemed an insignificant waste of time to people hundreds of years ago, but no one wants to look back in time and become a lamp-lighting husbandman. If the lamp-lighting husband could see the world today, he would find the prosperity that surrounds him unimaginable.
This page is auto-translated from [/nishio/The Intelligence Age](https://scrapbox.io/nishio/The Intelligence Age) using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.