/tech

Boom CEO Blake Scholl Calls for Accelerating AI Development

Boom Supersonic founder posts that development should accelerate rather than slow.

Blake Scholl posted that AI is the greatest technology since the steam engine and that humanity should accelerate its development. He compared it to fire, which carries risks yet delivered clear gains in cooking and warmth. A reply from Kevin Lacker pointed to a Slow Boring article titled The techno-optimist's fallacy that cites crack cocaine and cigarettes as net-negative technologies. Another reply quoted Aldous Huxley on progress enabling backward movement. A separate user objected to AI producing infinite slop. Dhiraj Kacker replied that AI enables broader creativity and upward mobility.

Original post

BS Blake Scholl 🛫@bscholl 10:21 AM · Sep 12, 2026
AI is the greatest technology since the steam engine. We should be accelerating it not slowing it down.

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@bschollAI is the greatest technology since the steam engine. We should be accelerating it not slowing it down.@TheOneButlerian@bscholl I don’t see infinite slop as “great”, pal.@dhirajkackerAI is the biggest enabler of upward mobility in the world that will bringing the creativity of more people into the marketplace of ideas than any other technology of the past. Giving the doomers benefit of doubt (i.e. not ascribing malicious intent to them), I think they fundamentally have either too much faith in a theoretical framework of how the world works and/or don't truly have faith in the human capacity to adapt and be creative. They have not developed a sufficient appreciation of the complex, adaptive system that is the human civilization. Artificially slowing pace down is going to have terrible unintended consequences. The most robust system for managing reward and risk is a free market of ideas and letting the creativity of each person come to bear to solve problems.@bschollQuick thoughts on AI: When in human history has there ever been a technology that was net negative? What about fire? Fire makes noxious smoke, risks burns, can destroy homes and can kill. But fire liberated us from the cold and let us cook our food. Then we made stoves with pipes — and they were safer and warmed our homes, but still carried some fire risk and had pollution. So we invented the power plant, which solved some problems with at-home fire—and we found ways to make better gas stoves and furnaces. Over time, we've made power plants better and better, reducing the negatives while enhancing the positives. Nat gas beats coal, and nuclear should beat both. So what about nuclear? I admit it's debatable whether nuclear weapons are a net positive or a net negative. I'd argue a net positive—because they ended WWII and made a mass-casualty great-power war unthinkable. But even if you disagree about nuclear weapons, you have to acknowledge nuclear is a technology category broader than weapons: nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and X-rays are part of the same fundamental technology. And there's no question nuclear writ large is a massive net positive for humanity. What about smartphones? They've certainly had downsides we need to take seriously — but it's obvious we are better off now than we were in the flip phone or landline era. This is the typical story of technology. And it's the arc of progress that lifted humanity out of the wilderness, that freed 90% of the population from back-breaking farm work while virtually eliminating famine, that enables any human with a tap of a finger to access the sum total of human knowledge, that allows us to enjoy comfortable climate-controlled environs any time of the year in any outdoor climate. My conclusion is: every technology has pros and cons. The cons are real—and the pros always outweigh the cons. As technology evolves, the improvements enhance the pros while reducing the cons. So what about AI? The question is not: are there cons with AI? Obviously there are; technology always has cons. The question is: are the pros going to outweigh the cons? Right now, with AI in its current state, it's not even close. The pros dramatically outweigh the cons. AI enables anyone to have a personal tutor. To offload repetitive and boring work. Anyone with an idea can become a creator and a software engineer. Individuals and small teams can do what used to take gigantic teams and big budgets. Our cars are becoming safer. Etc. Sure — we don't want AI teaching kids how to make nuclear bombs or bioweapons. We don't want hallucinating AI weapons. There are cons to be managed, solved, reduced, and eventually eliminated. History shows us that as technology develops, the pros are enhanced while the cons are reduced. So if we want better, more useful AI with fewer downsides — we need to accelerate AI development, not slow it down.@OutlawsPoetic@bscholl “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” —Aldous Huxley @lacker@bscholl I generally agree with you, but for what it's worth I think the best counterargument I have seen is this article. With examples of crack cocaine and cigarettes as net negative technologies. https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-techno-optimists-fallacy

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54 posts

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@bschollAI is the greatest technology since the steam engine. We should be accelerating it not slowing it down.@TheOneButlerian@bscholl I don’t see infinite slop as “great”, pal.@dhirajkackerAI is the biggest enabler of upward mobility in the world that will bringing the creativity of more people into the marketplace of ideas than any other technology of the past. Giving the doomers benefit of doubt (i.e. not ascribing malicious intent to them), I think they fundamentally have either too much faith in a theoretical framework of how the world works and/or don't truly have faith in the human capacity to adapt and be creative. They have not developed a sufficient appreciation of the complex, adaptive system that is the human civilization. Artificially slowing pace down is going to have terrible unintended consequences. The most robust system for managing reward and risk is a free market of ideas and letting the creativity of each person come to bear to solve problems.@bschollQuick thoughts on AI: When in human history has there ever been a technology that was net negative? What about fire? Fire makes noxious smoke, risks burns, can destroy homes and can kill. But fire liberated us from the cold and let us cook our food. Then we made stoves with pipes — and they were safer and warmed our homes, but still carried some fire risk and had pollution. So we invented the power plant, which solved some problems with at-home fire—and we found ways to make better gas stoves and furnaces. Over time, we've made power plants better and better, reducing the negatives while enhancing the positives. Nat gas beats coal, and nuclear should beat both. So what about nuclear? I admit it's debatable whether nuclear weapons are a net positive or a net negative. I'd argue a net positive—because they ended WWII and made a mass-casualty great-power war unthinkable. But even if you disagree about nuclear weapons, you have to acknowledge nuclear is a technology category broader than weapons: nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and X-rays are part of the same fundamental technology. And there's no question nuclear writ large is a massive net positive for humanity. What about smartphones? They've certainly had downsides we need to take seriously — but it's obvious we are better off now than we were in the flip phone or landline era. This is the typical story of technology. And it's the arc of progress that lifted humanity out of the wilderness, that freed 90% of the population from back-breaking farm work while virtually eliminating famine, that enables any human with a tap of a finger to access the sum total of human knowledge, that allows us to enjoy comfortable climate-controlled environs any time of the year in any outdoor climate. My conclusion is: every technology has pros and cons. The cons are real—and the pros always outweigh the cons. As technology evolves, the improvements enhance the pros while reducing the cons. So what about AI? The question is not: are there cons with AI? Obviously there are; technology always has cons. The question is: are the pros going to outweigh the cons? Right now, with AI in its current state, it's not even close. The pros dramatically outweigh the cons. AI enables anyone to have a personal tutor. To offload repetitive and boring work. Anyone with an idea can become a creator and a software engineer. Individuals and small teams can do what used to take gigantic teams and big budgets. Our cars are becoming safer. Etc. Sure — we don't want AI teaching kids how to make nuclear bombs or bioweapons. We don't want hallucinating AI weapons. There are cons to be managed, solved, reduced, and eventually eliminated. History shows us that as technology develops, the pros are enhanced while the cons are reduced. So if we want better, more useful AI with fewer downsides — we need to accelerate AI development, not slow it down.@OutlawsPoetic@bscholl “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” —Aldous Huxley @lacker@bscholl I generally agree with you, but for what it's worth I think the best counterargument I have seen is this article. With examples of crack cocaine and cigarettes as net negative technologies. https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-techno-optimists-fallacy

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Boom CEO Blake Scholl Calls for Accelerating AI Development

Boom CEO Blake Scholl Calls for Accelerating AI Development

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