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traceroute66 an hour ago

> The thing that will work is actually curing cancer.

This is honestly hilarious. Dario must think people are stupid.

First, cancer research charities are some of the most well funded on this planet. They all obtain donations on the basis of "together, we will cure cancer" messaging. They all fund the best science they can.

Second, the human body is a complicated thing. You can feed your fancy LLM as many textbooks and academic papers as you like, but the reality on the hospital ward will always be different. Why do you think student doctors have to spend so many years "doing the rounds" Dario ? They are all academically smart, they are all capable of memorizing text books ... but there is no substitute for seeing and doing the reality.

I barely trust Claude to write code, let alone find a cure to cancer.

eloisant an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Besides cancer isn't really "a disease" but rather "a family of diseases" that can vary a lot. Even breast cancer can be one of many different cancers.

It's like saying "we'll cure infectious diseases"

alphazard 10 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

"Cancer isn't a single disease" is often shouted from the Dunning-Kruger peak of cancer research. I think it was popularized by an explainer video on Youtube, and now it's being memed. The people who think this way want to legitimize funding a particular research niche that they benefit from.

A more sophisticated view is that cancer (one idea) is an problem of rates (like most things in biology) and there is a tumor burden per unit time from whatever causes vs. the immune system's capacity to detect and destroy them per unit time. As humans age, the balance tips in one direction. If the balance is too far off for too long, tumors accumulate, doctors take notice, and assign whatever labels to the condition.

Looking into particular causes of tumors (and calling each cause its own cancer) can create a vast research program that employs a lot of people, since there are so many mutations that lead to tumors. But interrupting the development of a particular mutation is not going to have the same society-changing effect that solving the fundamental issue of rates would.

traceroute66 38 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> It's like saying "we'll cure infectious diseases"

Don't worry, I'm sure that's his next blog post. Right after Claude has finished solving famine and poverty. ;)

fnord123 33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

We will cure virus.

FeteCommuniste 21 minutes ago | parent [-]

We will cure carpet. We will cure desk. We will cure lamp.

jacquesm 36 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> Dario must think people are stupid.

All of those guys think people are stupid. That theme has been repeating over and over again.