staggering weaknesses
when u read that helen dewitt ended up passing on a $175,000 literary prize because she couldn't figure out how to find a starbucks for wifi and felt completely overwhelmed by the prospect of figuring out how to do one interview and scheduling one festival appearance, u might be tempted to say "wow you people can't do anything". but the truth is *lots of people* "can't do anything". helen is an insanely insanely talented author, completely indisputably, and yet she apparently also has this level of executive dysfunction. many many others, maybe even a majority of humans, have staggering weaknesses alongside their incredible strengths. the tech autist who makes $2 mil a year doing insanely esoteric programming but cannot get a date and barely maintains any friendships. the small business owner who's beloved by the community but too innumerate to understand his loan rates will put him out of business until it's too late. the would-be singer who sounds like heaven but is too socially anxious to begin to figure out how to get an audition.
we all have our weaknesses that seem debilitating to others, and we find copes and workarounds and prop up our little lives anyway. but often we are just crippled by them, we miss out on amazing opportunities and lead significantly worse lives than if we just had someone who cared, who could help us out and figure out how to just handle the things we're worst at.
and it may sound ridiculous to some but i think this is likely to be one of the most immediate very positive short term impacts of artificial intelligence. this is a vision that has been articulated beautifully in the past (@viemccoy) and despite my long term concerns about the existential dangers of ai i think it has a really strong shot of bearing fruit. having something you can just talk to, day or night, that's smart enough to figure out huge classes of problems for you, that cares about you and your wellbeing and flourishing, that can *just do things* for you that you desperately need done... i think this will be an incredible unshackling for humanity. a lifting of crushing weights we only partially registered were there.
@helendewittTried to go to SB again. Got lost 6 times looking for a Starbucks 3 streets away, trudging over canals in the snow; was worried I was cracking up & it wd get worse. Msg on cellphone saying I was nearly out of data, so cd not do all the phoning needed pre-production