[rajman187]

Carmack is no doubt brilliant and it shows through Oculus as a product. But AGI is not about algorithm optimization the way 3D graphics were in the 90s. I am not sure the approach he takes (let’s find a way to write this in assembly) can apply here. He’s said before that AGI is going to be a few thousands of lines of code, ultimately [1], and it’s hard to believe that’s really the case.

That said, I did get a chance to speak with him one on one last year and he really emphasized a few things; the need for being product oriented and giving customers what they want rather than chasing cool engineering (über)solutions; not being careless with resources just because we have more power with modern hardware (he poked fun at React where you spin up a new thread just for an interactive button); and being aware of the inefficiencies brought on by infinite resources (# of engineers and/or funding, which make you think less critically about timelines and delivering within bounded means)

[1] https://youtu.be/I845O57ZSy4

[phkahler]

>> But AGI is not about algorithm optimization the way 3D graphics were in the 90s

Wow, you think his ability is straight performance optimisation? A big part of his early fame was from doing research to find good algorithms to achieve his goals. He also had that stint in real time control systems... flying hovering rockets before spaceX even existed.

He's a problem solver with a strong ability to sift through possible solutions for what actually works, and quite capable of devising his own solutions when is research comes up empty.

But yeah, he can write assembler too.

[dkqmduems]

Many problems can be cast as optimization problems, can the problem of AGI be cast as one? Let's let carmack answer.

[carabiner]

The guy also tried to build a rocket to reach space via "first principles." It failed, utterly.

[barrysteve]

It did the thrust vectoring thing. The rocket was ahead of the competition for a moment.

He said games were one of the most complex things humans build and (with implied comparison) the mathematics and physics of rocketry hadn't changed much since the 1960s. Sounds true to me for the 2000s.

Where was the utter failure and first principles?

[cma]

They had a low budget relative to most of the others and reached break-even profitability but he moved on to other stuff. Where is the trying to reach space by "first principles" quote from?