CMU math professor Wes Pegden's thought experiment punctures 'LLMs = star colonization in 10 years'
WesPegden · x · 2026-11-11
CMU math professor Wes Pegden poses a thought experiment against the belief that LLMs mean colonizing stars and living forever within a decade: if in 1990 we suddenly lost nearly all physical technology and infrastructure but kept our advanced knowledge of it, how long would recovery take? He follows up: send 10,000 cross-domain experts from 2026 to the year 1300 — how long until 14th-century inhabitants complain their electric cars can't fly? The thread analogizes that knowledge/intelligence alone doesn't guarantee rapid physical-world capability.
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