Yes, sorry, that was a strawman, didn't quite realise it. On that point, I _do_ believe that there are too many humans. I'm certainly not in favour of taking any drastic measures against that, but in the long run, I think we'd all be better off if there was less of us. Seems like we have a dynamic right now that will see to that over time: demographic transition.
But my main point - which I didn't make very eloquently - is that we humans do have a tendency to keep ourselves busy no matter what, sometimes doing things that are objectively pointless, sometimes doing things to the detriment of our species. I think the majority of what I've spent my life building falls into one of those two categories, unfortunately. Most applications of generative AI I've seen certainly do. And even if we do things that are objectively beneficial, we still spend resources doing so.
I think it's cool that there's research into the magnitude of that. If you want to save money, you start by understanding what you spend your money on, to use an analogy here.
But my main point - which I didn't make very eloquently - is that we humans do have a tendency to keep ourselves busy no matter what, sometimes doing things that are objectively pointless, sometimes doing things to the detriment of our species. I think the majority of what I've spent my life building falls into one of those two categories, unfortunately. Most applications of generative AI I've seen certainly do. And even if we do things that are objectively beneficial, we still spend resources doing so.
I think it's cool that there's research into the magnitude of that. If you want to save money, you start by understanding what you spend your money on, to use an analogy here.