Right now it seems like its “A.I.”. Still big now are the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Recently we had COVID 19.

What’s next?

  • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 months ago

    It’s still very much AI for a while. The current incarnation is still in relative infancy, and will only continue to get more capable and disruptive. We’re starting to see the integration with robotics, this is only going to become more significant with time.

    It’s likely that the next big thing will be a consequence of AI.

    • blargerer@kbin.social
      0·
      5 months ago

      The current AI boom is all based on a single paper from about 7 years ago, and has been achieved by just throwing more and more computing power at it. There has been basically no meaningful architecture improvements in that time and we are already seeing substantial fall off from throwing more power at the problem. I don’t think its a given at all that we are close to the kind of disruption you are predicting.

      • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
        0·
        5 months ago

        “The internet has reached the peak of its usability and will never progress much past it’s current level”

        This is you in 1997.

      • taladar@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        5 months ago

        I see AI as something that will go the way of VR or cryptocurrencies or self-driving cars, it won’t fully go away but people will realize that it is not suitable for nearly the number of use cases or improving as quickly as it was claimed it would and will sort of forget about it in most of the areas where it is not really improving anything.

        • livus@kbin.social
          0·
          5 months ago

          AI is currently being used in both the wars OP mentioned.

          Its primary use is always going to be in Surveillance Capitalism. The idea we can get nice things from it is mainly a consolation prize.

          I mean yes I can now get AI to draw me a picture or write me an editorial. But meanwhile the IDF can get AI to choose people to kill and use the Wheres Daddy AI program to tell them when someone is at home so they can deliberately bomb him with his family.

          So yeah it isn’t much for consumers but it’s not going away for use on us.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        5 months ago

        I don’t understand this deliberately pessimistic perspective I keep seeing around AI development that stubbornly ignores every other technological development in history. Even just considering the singular transformer architecture, we’re still seeing significant and novel improvement. In just a couple years we’ve watched the technology go from basic predictive text to high quality image and even video generation, now to real time robotics control.

        The transformer architecture is incredibly powerful and flexible. The notion that the basic technology staying the same is an indication of stagnation is as ridiculous as if you said the same of transistors half a century ago. Most of the improvement we see in the near future will be through recursive and multi-modal applications, meta-architechtural developments that don’t require the core technology to change at all.

  • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 months ago

    We can’t be far off people realizing how good robotic chef arms are and someone like Samsung making one that we start seeing in midsized kitchens, after this home adoption will be rapid and have huge benefits for diet and cost of living as well as being far more environmentally friendly than preprapared food.

    It’ll probably use a trained Llama model (metas ai which is good at tasking) to translate requests and input data to a cooking model likely based on the one they always use for trackmania but I forget it’s name I think it’s Nvidias evolutionary one - it simulates the actions to evolve a solution before actuting motors - its impressively quick now even on a small processor and used in loads of stuff. The robotics is easy just a couple of continuous rotational servos and grasping mechanisms which are super common now.

    I don’t know if any of the currently existing ones will get the market spot, I expect like with mp3 players It’ll come down to a big name making an easy to use but feature limited version to capture the market.

    If anyone has questions happy to defend my assertion.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      0·
      5 months ago

      How reliable are they, especially in edge cases? The word on the street has been that they’re still super dumb and we’re not automating blue-collar jobs like chef any time soon.

      • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        5 months ago

        Factory robots are incredibly graceful now and sensor systems are great at combining information into models, I would say that they’re almost certainly able to act safely - they’re not going to stab anyone by mistake, but might occasionally call for help locating a carrot or odd things until those small bugs are ironed out.

        I think fully multitasking robots are a way off because like self-drive there’s just so much complexity caused by small differences that accounting for it is endless, but an arm on a cooker with a prep area beside it would be restrained enough that solving the individual design issues would be manageable.

        I should say I’m not imagining it to be as good as the advert, the first ones will have fairly basic ingredients and dishes they support - probably a few thousand but missing various key dishes that are a bit too awkward. I’m Also imagining it’ll cook better than me but not upto my mums best.

        So I don’t think they’ll replace chef but we’re about to see a slew of task focused devices, probably in construction and similar fields. The chef focusing on the more creative and skilled elements while using them to chop, stir, make sauces or icing or whatever.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          5 months ago

          Oh, an arm on a cooker and prep area isn’t quite what I thought you were talking about. A human employee would still have to be around to feed it ingredients, clean it, and deliver the food, then, so that’s more like an increment on top of the slicing machines and automatic ovens fast food joints already have.

          • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            5 months ago

            They’ll probably call it something more impressive sounding and oversell it but it will be kinda revolutionary.

            When the trend of robots cooking from raw starts taking over the prepackaged and oven ready meals we’ll see real competition and innovation

    • Tekhne@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      5 months ago

      I have questions. Is this something in use today? Who is manufacturing them? Is this something you’re personally familiar with or just aware of?

      • Daxtron2@startrek.website
        0·
        5 months ago

        I haven’t seen specifically cooking, but there have been quite a few papers about mixing task-instruction LLMs with task-execution robot arms (like they use in manufacturing) to perform simple tasks given only a plain English instruction. Eg, “pick up the red ball and place it in the blue bowl”. Very cool research but still very new.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
    0·
    5 months ago

    Looking at the U.S. political situation, fascism seems to be getting closer every day.

    In fact, if you look at a lot of other western nations, fascist ideas are springing up all over.

    If feels like the world is even more crazy than it used to be, and the current period of crazy started in 2016 with Brexit, then Trumps win snd presidency, rolling into covid, then Trump got ejected, Russia intencified the war in Ukraine, the Hamas shat the bed and now Israel is going batshit insane, oh and during the two last years, two social media sites have decided to just oblitirate most of their good content generators, X is just fucking over everything that was twitter, and Reddit is slowly imploding since the apicalypse.

    I just had a look on Wikipedia, and damn there has been a LOT of shit going down since the start of 2016…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Brussels_bombings

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_nightclub_shooting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Atatürk_Airport_attack

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_truck_attack

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Turkish_coup_attempt

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Berlin_truck_attack

    2017:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_nightclub_shooting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Jerusalem_truck_attack

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2017_North_American_blizzard

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_storming_of_the_Macedonian_Parliament

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WannaCry_ransomware_attack

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Arena_bombing

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_London_Bridge_attack

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Tehran_attacks

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–2022_Yemen_cholera_outbreak

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
      0·
      5 months ago

      The election of Trump in 2016 was the culmination of many factors from the previous 50 years, all of which lead to a very predictable outcome.

      • Reaganomics loosening regulation on corporations, lowering taxes on the wealthy, and defunding public education
      • Rush Limbaugh and Fox news fostering rural nationalism
      • the advent of the internet which allowed those people to find each other and exchange their poorly informed ideas
      • the perception that politicians were prioritizing “them” over “real Americans”
      • 9/11 and the resulting surveillance state and 24h sensationalist news cycle.

      By the time Obama was in office, Republicans and Democrats lived in different realities. Republicans just wanted someone who was willing to stand on stage and spout their version of reality, and Trump is the right combination of insecure and stupid to want to do that. He was an inevitable symptom of a decades long problem.

    • Taalnazi@lemmy.worldNederlands
      0·
      5 months ago

      The ‘funny’ thing is that Trump never had won. He gained fewer votes than Hillary in 2016…

      Similarly, Bush imo is an illegitimate president, as he didn’t gain more votes than Al Gore.

      • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
        0·
        5 months ago

        You saying this has the same practical significance as pro-Trump people who think Biden “didn’t really win” in 2020.

        Which is to say zero.

        • Taalnazi@lemmy.worldNederlands
          0·
          5 months ago

          Difference is that my saying is based on a historically vested principle, simple as: one man, one vote. Instead of: your vote doesn’t count, only the oligarch’s does.

      • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        5 months ago

        Via the popular vote, yes. But in the US, the popular vote doesn’t decide anything. Should it? That’s a different question. The point is they won the election legitimately.

        We have work to do, but peddling election denial misinformation isn’t it.

    • jkozaka@lemm.ee
      0·
      5 months ago

      Don’t forget Europe. Here, the far right is also racially motivated. My country’s (Portugal) far right party shot up in votes in the last election and has repeatedly villanized roma people. I hear the AfD is also pretty concerning.

  • noroute@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    Personal quantum computers, and maybe virtual reality with artificial intelligence combined.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      0·
      5 months ago

      Personal quantum computers would be truely useless. They break specific kinds of encryption, and simulate other quantum systems. Other than that, nobody’s been able to devise a way to make them do much practical work.

      Really, it’s unfortunate they were named that, because they’re only like computers if you have a solid background in computing to understand the analogy. “Quantum emulator” or “programmable quantum system” might be a better word that wouldn’t make people think it’s the next semiconductor node. Alas, I have no time machine to fix it.

      • noroute@lemmy.world
        0·
        5 months ago

        Maybe useless to you. I’ll definitely find use for it. And cracking encryption is a huge plus. Quantum computers have been around for a long time and in use there are all sorts of software and even special OS for it just not for public use for obvious reasons.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          5 months ago

          Bro, do you even know a Kronecker product from a discrete log? You’ll find a use my ass. And now you’re in with a super secret group of quantum computer users. Are you sending ninjas after me next?

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social
      0·
      5 months ago

      There is a massive climate catastrophe before there is another even bigger climate catastrophe before considering climate action.

  • Zeroxxx@lemmy.id
    0·
    5 months ago

    Energy generation evolution I suppose. We are reaching the limit of how we generate energy. Need that Dyson Sphere for real.

    • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Are we? There’s still plenty of space for solar and wind. Including large battery installations for cities. It doesn’t really feel like we’re hitting a limit there anytime soon.

        • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          Right now I could buy an EV with 520km range for 36k€. It’s rapidly getting better.

          • Zeroxxx@lemmy.id
            0·
            5 months ago

            Now tell me how long do you need to charge that from 0 to 100%? 🤭

            You do know EV sales stall because of that, right? And the concern of battery lifespan.

            • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
              0·
              5 months ago

              You do realize most people charge at home? It doesn’t matter how long it takes when the car is just sitting there (you’ll even save time compared to driving to the gas station).

              Manufacturers also give 7+ years warranty on batteries by now, but even after 10 years a battery doesn’t just break, you only lose a few percent of range (if this wasn’t already calculated into the buffer, depends on the car).

              You do know EV sales stall because of that, right?

              In what fantasy world are you living? EVs just hit an all-times sales record last year. This is for the US, but it’s similar all over the world:

              • Zeroxxx@lemmy.id
                0·
                5 months ago

                You know people’s biggest limitation when purchasing is EV range compared to fossil fuel right?

                Last year? What year is it now?

        • jaycifer@lemmy.world
          0·
          5 months ago

          While I agree that there needs to be some big growth in portable batteries like those in EVs, there are options for cities. Since they wouldn’t need to move, heavier and denser batteries become feasible. I’ve heard good things about molten salt batteries.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          5 months ago

          Stationary batteries with no limit on weight or even temperature should be way easier. It just comes down to how much easier exactly. If someone finds a cheap enough chemistry that is the next big thing.

          Failing that, pumped water or air energy storage is decent, if a bit more awkward to install.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        5 months ago

        We are not. Not yet, anyway; energy growth has been exponential historically, so it might “only” be a century.

        Even if we had limitless energy, though, Earth can only radiate so much heat. I’ve seen it calculated as 400 years of growth max, generously. Before then we have to just stop growing, or leave Earth. All that to say fusion is probably the last energy tech we’ll ever need.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    In space sciences coming up are new manned Moon missions followed hopefully by some Mars missions. Also LISA is a huge interferometer that is planned to be deployed in orbit by ESA around 2035. Different size interferometers can measure different wavelengths of gravitational waves. LIGO (the interferometer observatory already in action measuring black hole collisions) has arms 4km long and can measure wavelengths in the range of 7Khz-30hz. LISA will have arms 2.5 million km long in orbit around the sun and is expected to be able to measure much much smaller waves.