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In a 2050 post-fall world, general-purpose computing was banned as an existential danger, forcing civilization to rebuild critical systems—weather, flooding, earthquakes, power grids—on specialized analog computers, buying safety at the cost of untold lives and economic damage, though a trillion-dollar general-purpose analog mind may still be possible.

In this Tech Tales fiction piece, a future guild-run civilization abandoned dangerous general-purpose computers for purpose-built analog machines dedicated to single civilizational problems, having paid a massive toll to gain safety from AI that could 'rip the world apart.' ✦ AI generated

Jack Clark (Import AI, Tech Tales) · Import AI · 2026-07-06 · original ↗

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So the great restructuring took place. General computation was banned - walled off as a forbidden technology. We moved the world to analog at the cost of untold billions of harmed human lives and trillions in economic damages. But we had obtained a kind of safety.

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✳ analog computation ✳ the guild

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In a post-2050 society, general-purpose computation was banned and the world rebuilt on analog computers because general computers had grown too powerful, unpredictable, and dangerous, at the cost of untold human lives and economic damage.Jack Clark (Tech Tales narrator) · Import AI · conf 85%

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supports → In a speculative 2050 future, humanity banned general-purpose computing after deeming it too dangerous and unpredictable, rebuilding civilization around analog, task-specific 'world computers' at enormous human and economic cost, though a trillion-dollar general-purpose analog mind may still be possible.Jack Clark · Import AI supports → In a post-2050 society, general-purpose computation was banned and the world rebuilt on analog computers because general computers had grown too powerful, unpredictable, and dangerous, at the cost of untold human lives and economic damage.Jack Clark (Tech Tales narrator) · Import AI extends → In a speculative 2050 future, humanity banned general-purpose computing after deeming it too dangerous and unpredictable, rebuilding civilization around analog, task-specific 'world computers' at enormous human and economic cost, though a trillion-dollar general-purpose analog mind may still be possible.Jack Clark · Import AI