I explained in the post...

No. The decentralization and consensus mechanism requires a token, similar to Bitcoin.

Its already happening, just look at Replika. Once these language models get even more powerful and get solid models/animations I can see a lot of people (especially lonely men) slowly ditching human partners for AI. When these things come in the physical form with believable body and facial movements its over.

Maybe this is going to solve the loneliness/mental illness epidemic that we are in right now. All of this also makes me wonder how the dating market is going to look in 5-10 years.

>Well the reason is pretty straight forward - want to "solve" intelligence, so that it can solve all other problems for us, quickly and fairly. That's the pie-in-the-sky dream many people are pursuing

I feel like the real reason is because we can. Humans want to satisfy their ego, cravings for power and curiosity. I don't hate WEF like a lot of conspiracy theorists out there, but Klaus Schwab recently stated in front of entire audience of leaders and innovators that "He who masters AI will be the master of the world". Its all about power.

Maybe researchers actually do care to solve intelligence because they are curious and actually want to use it to help people, but majority of other leaders and researchers want it because of power it will bring them.

Maybe your generation, but the reality is that people born after 2000's are extremely lonely and already somewhat out of touch with reality due to extreme internet addiction. Even now you could argue that people aren't interacting with each other as much as they did 10 years ago since everyone is so atomized and living in their own online bubbles. I have no reason to believe that the current trend is going to reverse anytime soon.

Wasn't there a study suggesting that the average teenager/young adult spends 6-8 hours per day on their phone (and that's only phone without counting in the computer and other gadgets)? I think there was another study that also suggested that every third interviewed person in the US doesn't have a real friend. Humanlike AI will be able to fix all of that, further reducing reasons to go outside and meet friends/partners.

The ultimate age of consumerism. Machines will put in the work and everyone will receive UBI. If UBI is not installed properly there will be riots, looting, assassinations of AI developers etc... If everything goes well we will become unrecognizable to each other since everyone will live in their own bubbles with their own AI generated video games, shows, porn, news feed, AI friends and girlfriends etc...

There will be no reason to interact with people anymore. Majority of people will just spend time in VR and in their own house. Food will get made by AI and delivered to you by an autonomous drone. No reason to go out for a doctor visit since your personal assistant will know your body better than you and will be able to predict years in advance what will happen to it. You get my point.

And soon after that comes human augmentation with AI. The future looks interesting to say the least, but what we currently regard as "human" will no longer be there in the next 10 years.

I've recently been watching The last of us, and I personally want to go the other way lol (return to monkey). I know its a TV show, but it does seem like when there is no technology the relationships people have seem a lot deeper, more meaningful and life in general feels more fulfilling. Hey, maybe when AI gets far enough I'll request a personalized first person simulation of different time periods to see what it is like to grow up without technology. Sorry for the rant.