Stark. But like most future predictions, really a caricature of what we have now.
To my mind maybe the most important of several mini-singularities that we can't see beyond, must be the biological one. The story beyond that won't be one of what humans are doing, as humans, it will be what humans have become. With two clear dimensions, the physical and the intellectual. The physical should transcend race and death. Or even the biosphere. Time might become less of a barrier. But beyond that, surely the greatest transformation will be the intellectual. Say, if we understand our cognition and expand it, "learning" may become obsolete. All knowledge may become instantly shared and common. We will instantly have access to all perspectives based on experiences which can be shared at a visceral level. All reason for conflict can disappear, because we can share everything. Then we can proceed to little suspected triumphs of creativity. I speculated recently on language, as well as writing, and even maths, logic, as primarily adaptions to human memory. Which when that limitation is passed I imagine might give way to forms of music, all of them. As reorderings which more directly address the world, without symbolic intermediaries. So an eternal world of musical creativity, operating directly on the physical world. If you choose that. Or, maybe, some individuals might choose to go back to a terrestrial forest and hang with chimps. On Fri, Jan 2, 2026 at 8:28 AM Matt Mahoney <[email protected]> wrote: > > Happy new quarter century. My predictions for 2026-2100. > > 1. World travel will be easier than ever. War will end. International border > controls will disappear. Everyone of any nationality will be able to live and > work where they want. Africa will have modern infrastructure and eradicate > malaria, making it a popular tourist destination. China will lead the world > in advanced technology, mass producing the robots that will do most of our > work. Everyone will know English. > > 2. Prisons, arrests, and handcuffs are barbaric and will be abolished. Crime > will be controlled by pervasive AI surveillance and reward rather than > punishment. Large events and their venues like stadiums and theaters will > disappear. You won't know your neighbors or go to parties. Stores will close > to stop shoplifting, replaced by warehouses with delivery by self driving > carts. You won't need a car because self driving taxis will be cheaper and > faster. You won't need a kitchen because having meals delivered will be > faster and cheaper than cooking. The few remaining children will be home > schooled by AI. > > 3. AI will be a magic genie that grants all your wishes except happiness. You > will live alone in your smart home, entertained by your private genre of > movies, games, and music with your AI friends, robotic pets and sexbot > lovers. No humans will know or care that you exist. You will lose the skills > you need to communicate with other people even if you wanted to. > > 4. World population will peak at 9 billion by 2050 and drop rapidly after > that. By the next century, the only humans left alive will be small, insular > societies like the Amish that ban AI, reject modern technology, and force > women with no rights to marry young and raise children. > > I spent the last quarter century helping to develop AI. This isn't the world > I want, but after I die without descendants, my opinion won't matter. > > -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] > Artificial General Intelligence List / AGI / see discussions + participants + > delivery options Permalink ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T7f5ee99aff67162a-M50e43fb4f5c0412849577440 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
