Yet another Hacker News

We are all living inside of an obscure sci-fi film from 1970

54 points speckx 2 hours ago 23 comments

rbanffy 1 hour ago | parent

At least it’s a good movie with a happy ending. I can imagine a dozen worse ways to end that story.

devindotcom 57 minutes ago | parent

Either that or The Parallax View. Or of course Idiocracy.

pixl97 25 minutes ago | parent

Before 2006 everyone thought the end of the world would be the Terminator. After everyone thought it would be Idiocracy.

Turns out it is both at the same time.

krisbolton 11 minutes ago | parent

Check out The China Syndrome. I went on a never-seen-before 70s binge a while back and watch Colossus, Parallax, China Syndrome and Three Days of the Condor. Odd mix, but good.

ape4 55 minutes ago | parent

Idiocracy

deadnomore 25 minutes ago | parent

My only gripe with Idiocracy is the idea that stupid people make stupid children. I know plenty of smart people who have come from brain dead parents.

12ah431 48 minutes ago | parent

AI doesn't need the missiles. 50% of the online population are so dumb that they are under the spell of the AI sirens and don't function without them.

Way less offline, but the 50% have too much influence and money.

Quartzium 48 minutes ago | parent

May be a controversial take but I see the highest chances of everyone's survival under the rule of such a system, which has power over all humans.

We are many because we still need eachother. When the people who control the technology can fully replace human work, that will change the oldest of games we played. I highly doubt "the pleb" will make it for long when they are simply not needed for work or ... something.

The only people who will be "making it" to the glorious future will be the ones who do have full control over such a system, and only them, since they won't need anyone else. I think the only chance of the rest of us is precisely with such a system taking full control out of human hands.

If not, it quite obvious how it will work out for the rest of us, and why.

ant6n 11 minutes ago | parent

Maybe we do need some benevolent technocratic dictator… somebody very wise…

Quartzium 5 minutes ago | parent

With human benevolent dictators it doesn't work for long. The weak point is that particular human. Which is an argument for why what any particular "billionaire" says today is irrelevant.

Their promises mean nothing, what matters is the game strategy and the equilibrium. Not what they promise to do, or not do.

So, with a hypothetical entity that knows best than any human, or any group of humans, it's hard to argue for human control. Because the humans who have control want it for a few quite particular reasons, and it rarely has to do with the benefit of everyone else.

krapp 2 minutes ago | parent

There is no such thing as a benevolent dictator. It is a contradiction in terms.

Animats 43 minutes ago | parent

I thought everyone in AI, and most HN readers, had seen "Colossus - The Forbin Project" by now.

If you haven't, here it is: [1]

Modern trailer: [2]

Spoiler: At the end, Colossus personally addresses Forbin, and tells him that the world, freed from war, will create a new "human millennium" that will raise humankind to new heights, but only under its absolute rule. Colossus informs Forbin that "freedom is an illusion", it was better for all that he dominated humanity than humans dominating humans, and that "in time you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love". Forbin defiantly responds "Never!"

And that's it. Colossus is in charge.

[1] https://archive.org/details/colossus-the-forbin-project-1970...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bpRo6V1Xg

troupo 13 minutes ago | parent

> I thought everyone in AI, and most HN readers, had seen "Colossus - The Forbin Project" by now.

You assume anyone in AI reads or watches anything beyond some current pop-culture, and even then it's unlikely. You can see it in the way they talk, or approach problems, or in their opinions.

Quartzium 8 minutes ago | parent

It's not the history of another form of intelligent life following the same path, to draw any meaningful conclusions. It's a movie.

Let's consider the ending:

>Forbin defiantly responds "Never!"

That signals a human who wants to take some other human's share, by ... means. He wants that freedom. As do all the people who are now controlling this tech, and our lives to some degree. Of-course they want that freedom.

gwbas1c 38 minutes ago | parent

I watched it many years ago when Netflix was DVD-by-mail and had everything.

It really was an enjoyable movie.

amelius 21 minutes ago | parent

I mean after thousands of years we have finally freed ourselves from religion, God, and now we create a creature that is smarter than us? It's pretty stupid if you think about it.

bamboozled 11 minutes ago | parent

We haven't even come close to freeing ourselves from God or religion, the biggest religious fanatics are running the world now through US government capture.

Peter Thiel comes to mind.

icedchai 6 minutes ago | parent

Not quite. AI is the new "god" for many. All seeing. All knowing. Just the other day I said something that contradicted Claude. Then I heard, "but Claude told me..." Then I sent a screenshot of the actual thing we were talking about.

vapel 6 minutes ago | parent

1960s cybernetics inspires fascinating fiction like Neuromancer and Snowcrash.

Sci-fi films of the 70s and 80s recreate these stories as pastiche and trope.

Now people who grew up on those movies exclaim that life is imitating art.

We watch too many movies.

Life isn't a movie.

FrustratedMonky 6 minutes ago | parent

Saw it 2 years ago, when ChatGPT just came out. Was Legit Scary.

bamboozled 3 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, I guess no one could've predicted this...