I have been consuming a series of really good sci-fi media since the start of 2024 which got me imagining and evaluating near-future scenarios. This post will be a collection of random thoughts about situations presented by the worlds these shows/book present.
Pantheon is an animated show recommended by @tszzl which is based on the short stores of Ken Liu. It explores the concept of uploaded consiousness, AI cyber-security using lingo straight out of twitter (referring them as Gods). It presents the state of being digitized as THE singularity.
The show paints a very comprehensive image of what could actually happen post achieving AGI. Work could be scaled easily by generating copies of digital beings and overclocking CPU cycles. Human, fearful at first, begin to choose to be digitzed to live in a post-scarcity world. An Adversarial arms race is spawned between nations producing their own digital beings. The UIs (Uploaded Intelligence) duke it out by invading and hopping servers to avoid a state produced digital virus.
An big chunk of the show was warfare between UIs and a cat-and-mouse game with Humans. The internet was one of the first things to be blocked to prevent UIs traversal. The show depicted UIs figthing as embodied beings attacking each other but beneath it they were trying to exploit and damage each other's "code". A fun side project would be to pit LLMs against each other in a server, giving them access to the shell and give them the aim to delete the other LLM. It would be interesting to see them create defenses like editing chmod rules and setting up various groups and groups. At the same time, they would be testing and trying to find exploits to be the first to delete the other LLM. This is what I image AI warfare could look like. I am surprised that no startup is being built at present for the explicit purpose of defence against intelligent agents. Lets have Capture the LLMs!
As our own world is dealing with larger models, some taking several months to train, governments have started drawing laws on magnitudes of computes that should be tracked. The humans of Pantheon also detect UIs using signs of high compute activity. This is the present as I am very sure the intelligence agencies are keeping at eye out to develop detection of such capabilities.
A lot of praise has been given to the "Three Body Problem" which deals with first contact with very advanced aliens. A faction of Humans begin to refer them as lords/gods and believe in their complete superiority. Could we face a similar dynamic as our Giant Transformers become smarter?
Honorable mention to my in-progress read "Profiles of the Future". It recounts how opinion of the future by experts are very wrong and proceeds to paint an optimistic future of how technology could unburden the constraints in transportation, space exploration in a detailed an comprehensive manner.
We are approaching futures of automation and hopefully abundance. As the dynamics present in pop sci-fi are becoming more real, we need more stories and imagined worlds that detail even further off futures. Sci Fi stories consider far off futures in a serious manner, thinking through the situations and consquences in great detail. It is an excellent excercise in thought and it presents us with promising targets to build towards.