• Perspectivist@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 day ago

    Trying to claim there was vastly less innovation in the entire 19th century than there was in the past decade is just nonsense.

    And where have I made such claim?

    • Womble@piefed.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      24 hours ago

      The “chart” that you posted, it showed barely any increase in the 1800s and massive increases in the last decades.

      • Perspectivist@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        23 hours ago

        The chart is just for illustration to highlight my point. As I already said - pick a different chart if you prefer, it doesn’t change the argument I’m making.

        It took us hundreds of thousands of years to go from stone tools to controlling fire. Ten thousand years to go from rope to fish hook. And then just 60 years to go from flight to space flight.

        I’ll happily grant you rapid technological progress even over the past thousand years. My point still stands - that’s yesterday on the timeline I’m talking about.

        If you lived 50,000 years ago, you’d see no technological advancement over your entire lifetime. Now, you can’t even predict what technology will look like ten years from now. Never before in human history have we taken such leaps as we have in the past thousand years. Put that on a graph and you’d see a steady line barely sloping upward from the first humans until about a thousand years ago - then a massive spike shooting almost vertically, with no signs of slowing down. And we’re standing right on top of that spike.

        Throughout all of human history, the period we’re living in right now is highly unusual - which is why I claim that on this timeline, AGI might as well be here tomorrow.

        • k0e3@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 hours ago

          I think their point is that your attempt to illustrate yours is poorly executed.

          I’m sure they would not have nitpicked if you had just said it with words. It’s probably just AI generated or was found using a quick google since you didn’t even notice where the “chart” suggested there was more innovation in the last decade than the entire 19th century.