This is how most people already live.

The average person doesn't know how the medication they take works, the mechanics of climate and climate change, how the energy they consume is generated, etc.

> But nobody can understand anymore how any of it works. We just ask and then trust the AI to deliver (as it always has).

> Isn't it fun to imagine how life would look like in that scenario?

This is horrifying to me.

> Isn't it fun to imagine how life would look like in that scenario?

I think there's a lot of sci-fi out there that already did. Maybe it's not utopian because a pure utopia would not be likely to have an interesting story, but on the other hand, most huge technological advancements end up having just as much potential to reinforce existing power imbalances in society rather than solve them. It's not obvious to me that if we got magic super AI that can solve every scientific problem in society that it gets used in pretty much the same way as anything else: making the people who control it a lot of money rather than sharing the power with everyone without charging them.

Here's the thing: nobody is stopping you from putting in the time to understand all that. The problem is, nobody has that much time, and we get hungry. And so we want the community to move with us, spend the time the same way as we do, to ensure value. We are all saying: we want someone else, others, to put in that time for us. The truth is, we all want quality, and value is closely related.

I can almost guarantee you the first time you show cancer symptoms, you won't care whether the cure came from an AI or human's understanding. But we haven't seen that, so we can't make the judgement call.

We would care about having fun.

For some people, fun is doing physics and mathematics. So they are going to keep doing that.

Before extrapolating that far, take a look at the frontier labs' own job boards (https://openai.com/careers/search/?). Isn't it curious that they are still recruiting human "Android Engineers", "Account Associates", "Consumer Marketing Leads" instead of automating them with their world-beating models?

Ian M Banks covers this in great detail in his science fiction books. Highly recommended.

You’re describing a world where no human being has any agency. Curing cancer etc. sounds great but we’d be losing something priceless in the exchange

Our best philosophers have already pondered this question, and showed us the answer in the form of humans on the Axiom starship in WALL-E.

> We would probably no longer care about code, engineering or even physics and mathematics among other things

This sounds like a boring existence. I take your meaning, but want to point out that not everyone learns about things because of practical utility, some of us find it incredibly satisfying to learn how things work just for the sake of learning.

You can't just leave us hanging like that!

I’m reminded of themes from the Hyperion Cantos! Maybe my mind is over-connecting, but it’s not the first time I’ve drawn similarities in the last few years.

It’s terrifying to me to think we’d let AI make things for us we never understand. Like livestock not knowing how auto-feeders dispense their daily food were built and appeared, they just gladly eat until…

But where are the “cure for cancer” papers for it to ingest and then give to us?

I think the weirdest part of that scenario is that science might become something closer to archaeology

> Isn't it fun to imagine how life would look like in that scenario?

Look at the financially desolate subcultures with no option for advancement or dignified life.

That is the goal and that is how it will lool like, if the tech CEO managed to gain the power they want.

> We would probably no longer care about code, engineering or even physics and mathematics among other things. We would probably mainly care about

… about what?

It's about as fun, and as realistic, as imagining magical ponies and people with superpowers?

This is such an incredibly naive and absurd vision; we've already proven that humans are very often very bad at implementing other humans' good ideas. There's nothing that AI is likely to bring that will improve this discernment.

no

STEM will be considered "historical studies" in an AI-ruled future.