> You'd have to supply the energy externally (i.e. some sort of beam propulsion), but getting any significant fraction of g out of such a system (with human-sized payloads) seems unlikely within the next centuries, especially as the distance increases.
Or some form of ram scope, plenty of H everywhere, but those also have the issue of you collecting things while going at relativistic speeds.
I would argue there is a broad difference in ethicality and reason between the bottom and top of the food chain, making these examples less clear cut. If your plan as a low level employee doesn't work out you still get fired and the consequences are far greater.
So instead of dictating research to unsolved, or largely unsolved, problems, we are now as "a society" directing compute power towards sniping research outcomes.
I thought this was an ebay thing for people with too much free money, but it seems a bit larger.
I hold both camps equally in low regard. Depending on the time of day this blog is hyper focused on either one of the companies and can do no wrong. All LLM companies and associated entities have a track record of fudging the truth to their needs and following big money without actual concern for the wider world. Whether this is out of directed act or misplaced idealism is up for debate.
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