A Portable Civilisation Starter Kit for a Post-Apocalyptic World (opens in new tab)

This quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein, paints a bleak picture of a post-apocalyptic world devastated by nuclear war, where civilization has been bombed back to the Stone Age. However, new technologies like large language models (LLMs) running on mobile devices call this claim into question. LLMs like GPT-3/4 (ChatGPT) demonstrate the immense power of AI systems, even when disconnected from the cloud and running on consumer hardware like smartphones. With astounding fluency and reasoning capabilities, an LLM could potentially accelerate the redevelopment of civilization after an apocalypse. Even without access to servers and the internet, an LLM on a solar-powered smartphone could provide a wealth of knowledge and problem-solving ability. To protect against electromagnetic pulses that could fry electronics, the phone could be placed in a Faraday cage, an enclosure made of conductive material that blocks electrical fields. This would allow the device to survive the immediate effects of a nuclear blast. Consider this scenario: A solar flare or nuclear EMP (Electromagnetic pulse) wipes out electrical grids and internet infrastructure. With most advanced technology disabled, survivors are left with no power, communications, or ability to access humanity’s collective knowledge. Now imagine one of those survivors has a smartphone with GPT-3 installed, along with a compact solar panel to keep it charged. They could ask the LLM pressing questions about agriculture, medicine, engineering, and more to help jumpstart the recovery process. Instead of fumbling around in primitive darkness, people could tap into the knowledge of these AI systems running locally on mobile hardware. With their ability to generate intelligent text, translate languages, and reason about complex topics, LLMs could drastically accelerate the redevelopment of civilization. They make the idea of bombing humanity back to the Stone Age seem rather far-fetched. Of course, robust infrastructure and access to global information networks would be preferable to post-apocalyptic conditions. But if worldwide destruction did occur, AI assistants on local devices could provide a vital lifeline to recovering more quickly. LLMs transform a smartphone into a portable civilization starter kit. So while Einstein’s prediction paints a dismal picture, the progress of AI systems running on consumer hardware provides reason to be optimistic. With just a mobile device, solar charger, and Faraday cage, an LLM assistant could help humanity get back on track after even the most catastrophic events. The coming world war may not be fought with sticks and stones after all.

Especially in post-apocalyptic environment, LLMs or other AI is better than good old grey matter, how?

Our world's supply chains are fragile. And chaos results from disrupting those. Enough disruption of supply chains = some-form-of-apocalypse all by itself. This goes for low-tech stuff like food or fuel, as well as for high(er) tech stuff.

Modern humans just can't make their own <XYZ> any more (in general, most people, for most stuff).