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this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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TechTakes
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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Great piece on previous hype waves by P. Ball
https://aeon.co/essays/no-suffering-no-death-no-limits-the-nanobots-pipe-dream
It’s sad, my “thoroughly researched” “paper” greygoo-2027 just doesn’t seem to have that viral x-factor that lands me exclusive interviews w/ the Times 🫠
Putting this into the current context of LLMs... Given how Eliezer still repeats the "diamondoid bacteria" line in his AI-doom scenarios, even multiple decades after Drexler has both been thoroughly debunked and slightly contributed to inspiring real science, I bet memes of LLM-AGI doom and utopia will last long after the LLM bubble pops.
Eliezer came from the extropian newsgroups/mailinglists iirc. So it is quite connected.
I mean the AGI part is basically magic. If LLMs aren't actually the way to build it then it doesn't change the underlying belief any more than the failure of expert systems or cybercyn or whatever else.
did he actually contribute anything other than chemists nicking the name "nanotechnology"?
I use the term "inspiring" loosely.
Indeed great piece, good to document the older history of that stuff as well.