Hacker News Reader

Comment by adfgionionio | Hacker News Reader

People said this about Bitcoin. They said it about Google Glass. They said it about VR headsets. They never seemed to notice the same logic applied to Microsoft Bob.

View on HN

Never heard of Microsoft Bob but after glancing at its Wikipedia article [0], it sounds super useful for beginners! It's Clippy's dad.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob

The immediate uptake and application of this technology to everyday lives is what different here. Bitcoin was NEVER hyped outside of Silicon Valley to much of a degree that people here think it was.

> Bitcoin was NEVER hyped outside of Silicon Valley to much of a degree that people here think it was.

I directly experienced Bitcoin maximalists selling Bitcoin-backed retirements to seniors far from the Valley.

The hype was so bad, the subsequent price-drop was a pop-culture event that got mocked by mainstream comedians to mainstream audiences.

> Bitcoin was NEVER hyped outside of Silicon Valley

You opened up IE/Edge and the "MSN/News" showed "Get rich with Crypto!!11". Today you open up Edge and the "News" show "Get rich with AI!!11" (With an AI generated Musk face).

Yes, there is a hype cycle that afflicts every new piece of tech. The existence of hype isn't evidence either way. What makes smart people think that this time is different is a straightforward comparison of the capabilities of LLMs and the skills needed to perform various human jobs, including (ominously) high-paying, scarce jobs.

> including (ominously) high-paying, scarce jobs

You mean like being a CEO and getting a bunch of money where the only credential is having previously been a CEO regardless of success in previous role? I think LLMs or even chat bots could handle a lot of those positions quite easily.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com