Part of von Neumann's genius was to realize that doing something and the instructions for doing something could both be encoded in the same machine in the same language. There were clear parallels to biology, with protein production and its instructions in the same organism.
The other big insight was to realize that the results of doing something could actually change the instructions for doing it, ie feedback loops. Once again, an essential component of biology. But it took a mathematician with expertise in generalization to realize this.
Von Neumann's other big advantage, which biologists lacked, was that he was familiar with the work of Gödel and Turing which showed that doing something and proving that it can done belong to different levels of abstraction. He could thus separate the process of doing something from the possibility of doing it.
Page from his "Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata", edited by Arthur Burke.
@BLUECOW009 Sups: l theanine 600mg, HRV biofeedback, exercise, take breaks to eat and try to feel “full” by the evening. I run on caffiene and self neglect so YMMV
@BLUECOW009 If you’re “mentally on” and it’s a side effect from intense, hyperfocused work with no mode switching - try to vary your routine a bit. If you have an awesome job or goal early the morning, it helps. If you do something physical, it helps. No magic bullet imo, wish you luck
“Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy.”
– Václav Havel
How to mentally place yourself in the future:
First, go to https://t.co/HHn7bwjl9N and viscerally feel what 15,000 tokens per second is like. Taalas burned Llama 3.1 8B directly into custom silicon
Next, imagine that same blazing speed but running OpenAI GPT-6 Astra that came out today, a model only 2 years more advanced than the model ChatJimmy serves
Finally, imagine every phone having a chip like this serving Astra-level intelligence with speeds approaching "instant" for any task no matter the complexity
What then?
@AlexanderKalian I think the more realistic concern is simple, if AI runs the factories, the cars, and all the logistics - that's a risk surface for humans that was never before entertained. Not because LLMs are B-list villains, but because ceding ground over time could lead to mishaps.
@AlexanderKalian I could wax and imagine a asimov-foundation style schism where machines handle so much complexity that human engineers become relegated to the sidelines. But AI can be pedagogical, so that's unlikely.
@peterrhague A: Helpful agents becomes incredibly powerful, unlocking new technologies, logistical solutions + economic output. Decision-making improves, externalize = tail risk.
B: Face hard problems with no help, doomed to repeat human-historic patterns with 20th century capabilities...