We Are (Still) Living in the Long Boring

4 hours ago

The author argues that despite claims of a technological Singularity, significant progress in material human life largely occurred between 1870-1970 with innovations like electrification, sanitation, and antibiotics, while recent digital advances are refinements rather than transformative.
Infant mortality dramatically decreased from 100 per 1,000 in 1900 to under 6 per 1,000 today, with most gains achieved before the digital revolution, illustrating that core improvements in health and living standards are not recent.
Smartphones and digital technology are criticized as epitomes of refinement culture, not invention, as their functions (communication, information access) existed in earlier forms like telephones and telegraphs, offering convenience but no fundamental change.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are noted to excel in generating code, text, and media, but they address already abundant virtual domains rather than solving scarcities in physical needs like energy, housing, or healthcare, highlighting the 'bits are easy, atoms are hard' barrier.
The author emphasizes that solutions to global issues like poverty, climate change, and injustice require political action, not technological salvation, and dismisses AI hype as speculative promises without evidence of curing diseases or boosting economic growth beyond current stagnant levels.

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