PICARD: Data, shields up
DATA: Brilliant! Shields can reduce damage we sustain. Not immunity. Not hubris. Just prudence. It's not precaution—it's strategy.
[camera shakes]
WORF: HULL BREACHES ON NINE DECKS
DATA: Here's what happened: you told me to raise shields, and I didn't
Absolutely massive. China just tested a new heavy-lift cargo drone capable of flying 3,000 kilometers without refueling. With an 18 cubic meter cargo bay, it can deliver hundreds of emergency tents to disaster zones. The future of logistics is unmanned.
A few weeks ago I posted about music, where after going through a period of "democratization"---anyone with a computer can post/distribute music---we will likely see the opposite emerge: walled gardens (private discords, exclusive experiences).
The same will likely happen for digital public spaces more generally. I'd say 50-80% of the comments I get are now from AI bots. It used to be that bots would at least advertise something (I miss crypto bots), now it's just comments that seem "normal" but are basically the same vapidness. "That's an interesting thing to think about, have you thought about X, Y, Z?"
Unless platforms figure out how to save these public spaces, most conversations will happen in walled gardens (discord, whatsapp groups etc), which is often already the case.
In the last few months, I've spoken to many CS professors who asked me if we even need CS PhD students anymore. Now that we have coding agents, can't professors work directly with agents?
My view is that equipping PhD students with coding agents will allow them to do work that is orders of magnitude more impressive than they otherwise could.
And they can be *accountable* for their outcomes in a way agents can't (yet). For example, who checks the agent's outputs are correct? Who is responsible for mistakes or errors?
"i need a vehicle to deliver the mail that lasts half a century"
grumman: "no problem"
"i also need a heavy strategic bomber that uses low observable stealth to penetrate enemy air defenses"
grumman: "you are not gonna believe this"
Kuwaiti locals aggressively confront and come close to attacking one of the crewmembers of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle shot down in a “friendly fire” incident Monday over Kuwait, until he finally tells them he is an American.
Lufthansa passengers were trapped overnight in an airplane after their flight from Munich to Copenhagen was cancelled on the runway
Ground staff at Munich’s airport had already gone home and could not transport the passengers back to the airport until 6 A.M. the next day
Seven German journalism students tracked Russian-crewed freighters lurking off the Dutch and German coast—and connected them to drone swarms over military bases.
https://t.co/NPWlepQz70 (1/6)