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<p>What incentive do programmers have? I was in the heart of
Silicon Valley starting in the 70s in what led up to the Homebrew
Computer Club. I was in SF then and living in the Haight. A
bunch of hippies became techno-hippies as fast as the first
rudimentary do it yourself computer building kits or even xeroxed
instructions became available. Computer Power to the People was
our motto, dream and chant. And our crowd along with our pocket
protector non-hippy engineering geek siblings changed the face of
the world. <br>
</p>
<p>That revolutionary fervor and power is not at all death. Look to
Open Source - to massive mutual several interest cooperatives and
their power beyond more closed systems. Yes there are rent takers
and some of them threaten the abundance that can come from such
technology. Yes there are those that want to protect their
relative position of wealth and power against forces of
revolutionary change. But the incentives are very much alive.<br>
<br>
I did commercial software for four decades and it can indeed suck
the joy and the promise and the incentives out if they are not
continuously refreshed. Doing something technically really cool
that gets owned and used for things you don't believe in is
deadening.<br>
<br>
Money? We have all the tools to spin up a mere idea into an
online SaaS or other business with extremely little working
capital and a cohort or two that has the dream. <br>
<br>
We are awash in incentives.<br>
<br>
- samantha<br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/2/20 1:38 PM, William Flynn
Wallace via extropy-chat wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAO+xQEYayjFn7TtrXsaABduPaF+SyK64kCW5xaDJzuf0TTdbhg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Suppose
the increasing ability of AI is like a classic curve: at
first positively accelerated, then negative, slowing down
gradually. Just where on the curve is it now? Sure, it's a
wild guess. If that curve is true, then we can expect more
breakthroughs in the next 20 years than we have had in the
last 20. </div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">The
Nobel Prize comes with a nice piece of change. Just what
other cash incentives do programmers have? Maybe we need big
important prizes to recognize just how important this work is.
There are certainly enough billionaires around to do that.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">I can't
say that I really understand the process. Is it the
programmers who get the credit, or the people who told the
programmers what to program? Or did the AI partly program
itself? Anyone know?</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">bill w</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 2, 2020 at 1:29 PM
Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <<a
href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div> On 02/12/2020 14:43, bill w asked:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Do
y'all think that this is the best thing AI has
ever done? bill w</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
So far, yes.<br>
<br>
But it won't be the best thing it ever does.<br>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Ben Zaiboc</pre>
</div>
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