On Android you can use Google Lens or, if you don’t want to use Google products, any random QR code scanner app.

No idea about iPhone as I’ve never owned one, but I’d assume most QR code scanners can do that there as well.

Let’s put it this way: If in our lifetime we can simulate the intelligence of a vinegar fly as general intelligence, that would be a monumental landmark in AGI. And we’re far, far, far away from it.

I get what you mean here and I agree with it, if we’re talking about current “AI”, which isn’t anywhere close. I know, because I’ve programmed some simple “AIs” (Mainly ML models) myself.

But your comparison to ancient egypt is somewhat lacking, considering we had the aptly named dark ages between then and now.

Lot’s of knowledge got lost all the time during humanity’s history, but ever since the printing press, and more recently the internet, came into existence, this problem has all but disappeared. As long as humanity doesn’t nuke itself back to said dark ages, I recon we aren’t that far away from AGI, or at least something close to it. Maybe not in my lifetime, but another ~2000 years seems a little extreme.

Whenever I hear someone say that something is impossible with current technology, I think about my grandma. When she was a kid, only some important people had telephones. Doctors, police, etc.

In her lifetime we went from that to today, and, since she’s still alive, even further into the future.

Whenever someone calls something impossible, I think about how far technology will progress in my own lifetime and I know that they’ve got no idea what they’re talking about. (Unless, like you said, it’s against the laws of physics. But sometimes even then I’m not so sure, cause it’s not like we understand those entirely. )

As someone also using Kagi:

1. There’s a free tier, so you can try it out as much as you want (technically you only get 100 searches, but as with all free trials you can just make a new account)

2. There’s a cheaper tier at $5 now, which gets you 300 searches per month. Depending on how much you use it, that might just be enough.

I know what you’re getting at, but generally homes are actually built that way.

Law enforcement can always go through any doors or windows if they have a warrant. You’d have to build a bunker to be save from them.