alt Hacker NewsI think this is related to the structures we’ve built in society. It’s lower friction to write software than just about any of the problems you listed.
It reminds me of the Ezra Klein quote that “OpenAl would need permits to cover its parking lot in solar panels, but it can accelerate into recursive self-improvement, as best I can tell, whenever it so chooses."
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numbasys • yesterday at 10:41 PM
Soon: The super-intelligent AI is telling us to cover parking lots and other flat roofs in solar panels.
A lot of it isn't low friction really just in terms of political will it is high friction. E.g. housing issues are due to failing to upzone to meet demand appropriately. Solving housing is therefore free. It could be done today in any city in a housing crisis with the stroke of a pen, and before long, the market will equilibriate at a level better afforded by the median wage earner in the economy. The decision not to do this is a deliberate one: prices increasing is very much the goal of this sort of policymaking.
Likewise when you see other such shortcomings in our world, ask what this incentivizes for otherwise. Then things will become obvious why they are how they are, from housing, to transit, to feeding people, to healthcare.
The priority is profit, not people.