A Simple Quest on Life in a Computing Age
Generating better value can only be achieved if we have resources of good values in our minds. At least that’s what I think when people face a situation. In most cases, experienced people can handle situations better. The question is, how do we gain as much experience as possible to level up ourselves like in a game? One of the answers is doing quests, and the good news is you can choose your own quests based on your interests, right?
Back to the resources in our minds, of course, there are many variables involved in completing quests efficiently and effectively. Currently, in this technological era, when many people rely on calculators, computers, the internet, and now AI to assist them in their quests, some people can use AI easily while others still struggle with how it can help them. I think it’s not so different from when fire was first discovered. Some people didn’t have much idea what they could do with it, even though its heat power had so much potential. Fast forward, from heat power we enter the era of computing power.
“Computing power will be the currency of the future, not fiat currencies like Bitcoin or even the U.S. dollar.” — Sam Altman
AI won’t replace humans, but humans who use AI might replace those who don’t. This shows how important computing power has become. Think of a lawyer using AI to quickly find information from thousands of cases. They’ll likely do better than a lawyer who doesn’t use AI. But human skills like creativity and judgment are still crucial. The key is to combine human abilities with AI’s computing power. People who can do this well will have an advantage in their jobs. As more work involves lots of data, being able to use powerful computers and AI is becoming more and more important in many fields.
Computing power isn’t just about software — it’s also about hardware. Companies are spending a lot of money on special computer chips, like powerful GPUs, that can run AI programs very fast. These chips are much quicker than normal computers when it comes to AI tasks. For example, to create a smart AI that can understand language, you need many of these special chips working together. This shows how important raw computing power is for making better AI. As these fast chips become easier to get, they’ll probably change how many businesses work, from banks to hospitals to movie studios.
“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.” — Bill Gates
I always think of AI as a leveraging tool for humans. If a human’s basic skill level is 10, then AI can leverage it 20 times, resulting in 200. However, if that human’s basic skill level is already 20, then it becomes 400. If we compare the two conditions: person 1 has a skill level of 10 and person 2 has 20, the difference is only 10, but after using AI, the difference becomes 200. That’s why I still encourage people to enhance their own skills rather than rely solely on AI.
One of my resources for enhancing my own general thinking skill is a YouTube channel by David Shapiro, https://www.youtube.com/@Systems.Thinking. I highly recommend watching at least one video from his series, particularly “Systems Thinking Ep. 1: Lists & Models” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ8vp4OahB8&list=PLlu3VssJh_pi6XvEYpnW3s6lBvRUVP18H). In this series, Shapiro explains many aspects of systems thinking, such as how to list items, categorize them, and expand ideas based on those lists. His approach reflects on prompt engineering and the language structure of how we can build effective sentences based on various ideas to help people understand better. I think that’s a constant challenge. Failure in communication can lead to conflicts, as highlighted in the introduction to the Civil War song by Guns N’ Roses from the movie Cool Hand Luke (1967): “What we’ve got here is… failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it… well, he gets it.”
“Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem.” — Russell L. Ackoff
Now that we can leverage ourselves, we also need to try to use top leveraging tools like Anthropic Claude 3.5 or the OpenAI GPT-4 o1 model. After humans are well-aligned with AI, the next question is: what are the most fundamental problems that humans should solve if an intelligence explosion (singularity) occurs? Currently, we have the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that we are striving to achieve.
But before all that, let’s try to solve our basic problem: conquering the beast within ourselves first, as our greatest enemy is often our own selves. As I’ve thought since I was a child, the best life to live is one where we are truly alive. Viva la vida! And remember, in the end, the most important thing is to simply live the life that feels right and meaningful to you.
