The Wired article is pay walled so I didn't read it. Anyway, by today's utopia, I mean that we are better off now than any time in the past by almost any utility function that we care about: income, life expectancy, better technology, and more life choices. If these trends continue, the next century will be a world without war, borders, prisons, or poverty, where robots do all our work and replace humans as our friends and lovers, who we will prefer because they are always available and never argue.
But that doesn't mean we will be happier. We will always complain about something and want more. We're not happier today than medieval slaves or primitive tribes or even farm animals. Happiness is the rate of increase of utility. And all possible utility functions in a finite universe have a maximum where no more happiness is possible. That state is functionally equivalent to death. -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] On Fri, Mar 6, 2026, 5:20 PM James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Fri, Mar 6, 2026 at 2:15 PM Matt Mahoney <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> The difference between today's utopia >> > > There are many who want to believe that others are* under sufficient > control that neither they nor others need wake from their respective dreams. > > This belief stretches my credulity to the waking point. > > Your mileage seems to vary. > > *Note present tense. > > https://www.wired.com/story/jack-dorsey-explains-block-layoffs/ > *Artificial General Intelligence List <https://agi.topicbox.com/latest>* > / AGI / see discussions <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi> + > participants <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/members> + > delivery options <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription> > Permalink > <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Tb9c1aaff01c2b823-Me27b192c158096f230e2f6f3> > ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Tb9c1aaff01c2b823-M23398758fcdf2cd42df94c8c Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
