"Billions of dollars are currently being poured into a technology that doesn't actually exist. Governments are drafting regulations for it. Universities are reorganizing research priorities around it. Think tanks are hosting roundtables about it. No one can say exactly when, or even if, this technology - artificial general intelligence (AGI) - will arrive. Yet the idea of it is already shaping budgets, careers, and policy."
"Progress in steel and silicon has long been preceded by progress in imagination. Jules Verne's novels prepared readers for submarines and space travel. Star Trek 's communicator device inspired engineers to create the mobile phone. Douglas Engelbart's famous "Mother of All Demos" showed a mouse and hypertext before most people had touched a computer - a generation of researchers left his talk determined to build what they had just seen."
Billions of dollars are being invested in artificial general intelligence even though its arrival is uncertain. Governments draft regulations, universities reorganize research priorities, and think tanks host roundtables around AGI. The idea of AGI already shapes budgets, careers, and policy, functioning as cultural infrastructure that encourages building systems and institutions to realize it. Historical imaginaries have preceded material innovation: Jules Verne prepared readers for submarines and space travel, Star Trek’s communicator inspired mobile phones, and Douglas Engelbart demonstrated interfaces that motivated researchers to build modern computing tools. Stories and symbols make some futures seem inevitable and mobilize resources toward them.
Read at Big Think
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