Skill Issue
May 20, 2024
When I was a kid, I used to play a lot of Civ IV. Like, a lot. I remember perfectly beautiful, sunny summer days in Northern California that I witnessed entirely from my bedroom because I was busy running marathon sessions of back-to-back Civ games. There was something about the game that just pulled you in. It felt like a craft that you could perfect, with infinite facets. Some games you could pursue a military victory, sometimes a science victory, and others a cultural one. While military victories were usually the most fun (especially if you were playing as Gandhi), the nerd inside me felt drawn to scientific victories.
I've been reflecting a lot on those games, pondering which combination of resources and skill tree decisions led to the fastest win. It feels like today we're in a period of time that's very relevant. I'm reminded of Peter Thiel's quote: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters". This quote (rightfully) tries to indict the entrepreneurs today for pursuing "easy" problems in the digital world instead of pursuing hard problems that could make our world actually look physically different than the 1970s.
I say that this is a "rightful" criticism of the state of affairs because I definitely want to see us push forward in the world of atoms: robots, room temperature superconductors, cheap and abundant high-speed transport, and teleportation (oh my!). But it feels like we're stuck in a rut in our civilizational skill tree rather than stuck in a rut of willpower.
We've had eras before where we saw physical advancements improve information technology and we've seen information tech improve the physical world as well. It's a balancing act; a sort of yin and yang that cycles as we progress onward.
Improvements in physical technology around radio transmission and nano-scale manufacturing have given us the modern world where we utilize chips and waves to stay hyperconnected to every corner of the earth. But I think that people forget that advancements in the printing press and internet (DARPA) are what led to the scientific revolution and the golden age of American science in the post-war era. These were tools that were used to share information on math, science, and engineering advancements at higher bandwidth than you ever could before.
We're at the precipice of AI allowing us to unlock another item in the physical tech skill tree now. Companies like Quilter, Tesla, Applied Intuition (and more) are using AI to help us design better products in the physical world. The flying car we've been waiting for is just around the corner; It's all just a skill issue that we're grinding to overcome.