> If you're the sort of person who believes that human brains are capable of understanding the "why" of how things work in all its true detail
This seems to me an empirical question about the world. It’s clear our minds are limited, and we understand complex phenomena through abstraction. So either we discover we can continue converting advanced models to simpler abstractions we can understand, or that’s impossible. Either way, it’s something we’ll find out and will have to live with in the coming decades. If it turns out further abstractions aren’t possible, well, enlightenment thought had lasted long enough. It’s exciting to live at a time in humanity’s history when we enter a totally uncharted new paradigm.
This seems to me an empirical question about the world. It’s clear our minds are limited, and we understand complex phenomena through abstraction. So either we discover we can continue converting advanced models to simpler abstractions we can understand, or that’s impossible. Either way, it’s something we’ll find out and will have to live with in the coming decades. If it turns out further abstractions aren’t possible, well, enlightenment thought had lasted long enough. It’s exciting to live at a time in humanity’s history when we enter a totally uncharted new paradigm.