[usrnm]

> No no, an intelligent person looking at a crude steam engine could see what potential it has. This is not hindsight

Steam engines were known since the first century, at the vert least: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

It does take a lot of imagination and creativity to come up with new and better ways to use an already existing idea. We're currently just scratching the surface of what LLMs are going to do for us

[danlitt]

From your exact link,

> The aeolipile is considered to be the first recorded steam engine or reaction steam turbine, but it is neither a practical source of power nor a direct predecessor of the type of steam engine invented during the Industrial Revolution.

[direwolf20]

The ancient Greeks surely would have realised that an aeolipile could be used as a source of power, if they'd had abundant combustible fuel, a need for rotary motion, and no better source of it.

Newcomen engines are mere curiosities today, because we have better sources of power (better engines). In the past, they had better sources of power too (donkeys, wind, water, or human slaves). Newcomen engines, like all technologies, are only viable in certain economic environments. In all others they are curiosities.

[usrnm]

Which is the exact point I was trying to make? It's still a steam engine, the basic idea is there and, yet, nobody saw its huge potential

[qsera]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47179154

[qsera]

Yea, sure.

Better search could be used in ways that we can't think of right now..

[usrnm]

I already use AI tools for more things than just "better search". Like, today. For work.

[qsera]

Yes, part of some kinds of work is actually just a glorified looking-up aka search.

For example, even something like "I want python code to do X" could get exact hit in a stack overflow answer using regular internet "search"

Just wrote about it here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47178461