Has humanity created anything of value since 2010?

submitted by fschmidt from self.nonmorons

Sincere question. Any music, movie, art, architecture, software, gadget, anything? I honestly can't think of anything except my own software.

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[–]BadSprocket 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Well, we put some neat toys on Mars. When some alien race visits our charred wreckage, they'll at least know some of us were trying.

[–]trident765 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

What about all the AI stuff? I posted a video of a new AI supercomputer that from the demo looks like it's about to put almost all programmers out of work. Also, video suggestions are becoming very accurate in terms of predicting the kind of videos that I would click on. Search knows what I want even when I type vague keywords.

[–]fschmidt[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Most AI advances are just from more computing power. I saw the video but I would have to play with it myself to judge. But the bottom line is that I can't think of any way that AI has created much real value, much that has improved quality of life.

[–]trident765 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I guess it depends on which life you are talking about. If you have bad vision and you get a pair of glasses, this improves your real life. If your computer has poor resolution and you replace it with one that has good resolution, this improves your virtual life.

Deepfakes are a novel technology, here is an example of it:

https://youtu.be/IvY-Abd2FfM

Won't this have a profound impact on the virtual experience?

[–]fschmidt[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Even if this is novel, how does it improve anyone's life? All it does is to enable fake news, so maybe it improves the lives of the evil elite, but that's about it.

[–]wary_observer 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Please explain how deepfakes are a novel technology. I haven't looked into it, but I'm guessing it's just a combination of advanced CGI, multi-layer video editing, voice synthesizing technology, and the like. Just more computing power combined with manipulative media techniques.

[–]trident765 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Please explain how deepfakes are a novel technology. I haven't looked into it, but I'm guessing it's just a combination of advanced CGI, multi-layer video editing, voice synthesizing technology, and the like. It's just more computing power combined with manipulative media techniques.

I believe the point of deepfakes is that it fully automates the things you mentioned. You give the program a skeleton video of the actor moving around. And then you give the program a set of videos of Queen Elizabeth, and then the program does the rest. So now you no longer need a team of skilled graphical artists to do the CGI.

[–]wary_observer 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is exactly the kind of false convenience I touched on below.

Besides, is there a real technical innovation with this stuff, or are the improvements just due to increased computing power and centralization of data collection and processing by entities with massive resources?

[–]wary_observer 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Humanity, no. Maybe unknown individuals are creating something of value. But they will not be publicly recognized.

I think all music, art, architecture that are accepted into the public realm now are actually anti-music, anti-art, anti-architecture. It's especially blatant with public architecture.

As for technology, take automobiles for example. The technology was perfected sometime in the mid-20th century and since then has devolved into needless complexity. Part of this is by design, of course, to drive up both the initial price and the cost of repairs. Most cars now are designed not to be repairable by the owner.

Even something as simple as light bulbs has gotten worse. Again, by design. Instead of the warm glow of incandescent light, now we have everywhere the cold harsh glare of LEDs and CFLs. The latter are mercury-filled abominations that are advertised as environment-friendly. Everything is backwards.

The push for automation and networking of everything (internet of things) is another example of modern idiocy. The idea is to make every device into a "black box", accessible only to the manufacturer. The purpose is not convenience but centralized control and data mining (spying on) the user.

[–]fschmidt[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The push for automation and networking of everything (internet of things) is another example of modern idiocy. The idea is to make every device into a "black box", accessible only to the manufacturer. The purpose is not convenience but centralized control and data mining (spying on) the user.

https://youtu.be/PCRx78Zhj7s