Oh, and this popped into my feed, which seems to show I'm not the only pessimistic one.

The British-Canadian computer scientist often touted as a “godfather” of artificial intelligence has shortened the odds of AI wiping out humanity over the next three decades, warning the pace of change in the technology is “much faster” than expected.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/27/godfather-of-ai-raises-odds-of-the-technology-wiping-out-humanity-over-next-30-years

Nice links but I don't agree that it will be like that.

Whilst I've been alive - some fifty-odd years, the population of the world has doubled. The growth is exponential and we've achieved much in terms of improving the life expectancy (67 for men then, 82 now). Infant mortality is also less. Smallpox eradicated, better healthcare globally - etc etc. We've got good at living longer - even when a global pandemic happens, it doesn't even make a /dent/ in that population, unlike Spanish Flu. Quality of life in most countries is better than it was.

So why do I still think it's a problem? Because people don't get on well together and the world is less stable than it was. Politics, greed, pollution, media stirring up hate, tribalism, religion, jealousy and so on. More people bring more problems, economic migration is causing large movement of peoples around the world, and humans don't suddenly start playing nice together because there's more of them. Look at America's recently announce reneging on agreed environmental policy and they're not the only ones continuing to invest in oil against a clear human benefit.

Are we happier than we were 50 years ago, for all these improvement? I don't think we are, by any measure.

The UN predicts the population will stop growing at 10.3bn in the mid 2080s. It's just a prediction and a rather optimistic one, and the UN is prone to painting a rose-tinted picture. The truth is unknowable.