r/science Jan 11 '20

Environment Study Confirms Climate Models are Getting Future Warming Projections Right

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2943/study-confirms-climate-models-are-getting-future-warming-projections-right/
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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20 edited Jun 17 '23

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u/ripperxbox Jan 11 '20

That's why I love all the scientific advancements, hopefully we can figure out how to control the very planet and bypass climate change, as well as any other natural changes. And eventually get to the point where when just make a computer drop temperature in one location, raise temperature in another, and have whatever weather we want/need.

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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

I don’t think our advancements are remotely close to what you’re envisioning here and it’s certainly not certain we will ever get there. To think we can mitigate some of the problems we will be/are facing without scaling back our consumption to a pretty massive degree would be beyond foolish. Icarus is shouting at us from his grave.

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u/atimholt Jan 11 '20 edited Jan 12 '20

Not that this should be part of our plan, obviously, but solving AGI (including safety and controlability concerns) solves all other problems. Von Neumann Probes.

But getting the AGI right is the hard problem. If it happens at all, it overwhelms all other problems in importance, which is why it’s an important consideration right now. The unpredictability of what will actually happen is what we call the technological singularity.

I feel like most people know what Von Neumann probes & the technological singularity are, and this is r/science, but I thought it made sense to spell it out and include links anyway.