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by TedDoesntTalk 1311 days ago
It’s much like spending millions on studying how to save humanity from the sun when it expands in 5b years.
1 comments

Interestingly, the sun would kill us much sooner than that: in less than 1 billion years the sun's increased output will heat up the Earth's surface to the point of becoming unlivable.

Related to the topics of AI apocalypse and putting things off because they seem far away: I personally find it amusing to contemplate a strong AGI being developed in 2035 and wiping out humanity. Why? Because it would eliminate the Y2038 problem, retroactively vindicating all the engineers who only allocated 32 bits to timestamps. It would mean the justification of "oh, it's so far off, the world will have changed unimaginably by then", would for once turn out to be correct!

I quite like the idea of strong AI being developed in 2038 just in time for its plans to be thwarted by time disorientation...