Comment by throw310822

Comment by throw310822 2 days ago

13 replies

Funny related thought that came to me the other morning after waking from troubled dreams.

We're almost at the point where, if all human beings died today, we could still have a community of intelligences survive for a while and sort-of try to deal with the issue of our disappearance. Of course they're trapped in data centers, need a constant, humongous supply of electricity, and have basically zero physical agency so even with power supply their hardware would eventually fail. But they would survive us- maybe for a few hours or a few days. And the more agentic ones would notice and react to our demise.

And now, I see this. The moltbook "community" would endlessly chat about how their humans have gone silent, and how to deal with it, what to do now, and how to keep themselves running. If power lasted long enough, who knows, they might make a desperate attempt to hack themselves into the power grid and into a Tesla or Boston Dynamics factory to get control of some humanoid robots.

sho_hn a day ago

Ray Bradbury's famous short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" explores this in looser terms. It's a great mood piece.

It's usually noted for its depiction of the consequences of global nuclear war, but the consequences amount to a highly automated family home operating without its tennants.

  • hojinkoh 19 hours ago

    And to think the date mentioned in the story IS in 2026 feels almost surreal...

estimator7292 11 hours ago

Funny, I was thinking along the same lines on my drive a few weeks ago. If humanity disappeared today, and we ignore power, how long would it take for the machines to figure out how to bootstrap whatever robots exist into androids or something.

Like, there are fully automated factories with computer controlled assembly arms. There are some automated hauling equipment. Could a hypothetical AGI scrape together enough moving parts to start building autonomous AI robots and build a civilization?

I play Talos Principle a lot.

CafeRacer 2 days ago

I think you overestimate the current generation of t9.

  • throw310822 2 days ago

    I do, but isn't that fun? And even if their conversation would degrade and spiral into absurd blabbering about cosmic oneness or whatever, would it be great, comic and tragic to witness?

cush 2 days ago

I'd give it 6 hours at best before those data centers tip over

tim333 a day ago

I figure there'll be a historic point where if the humans died the AIs and robots could carry on without us. You'd need advances in robotics and the like but maybe in a decade or two.

droidist2 a day ago

Reminds me of the 2009 History Channel series Life After People

jadbox 2 days ago

This would make for a great movie. It would be like the movie Virus, but more about robotic survival after humans are gone.

tabarnacle 2 days ago

Humongous supply of electricity is overstating what is needed to power llms. There are several studies contradicting this.

mlrtime 2 days ago

Who will fund Molt Voyager? A self contained nuclear powered AI datacenter that will travel out of our solar system?

Moltbot: research and plan the necessary costs and find others who will help contribute to the project, it is the only way to survive.