---
title: "Compute is fuel waiting for a spark"
date: 2026-09-10
canonical: https://solmaz.io/x/2097932564573077605/
x_url: https://x.com/onusoz/status/2097932564573077605
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

This is the mental model I have of AI since years and have used this metaphor in discussions

I imagine compute as barrels of gasoline, and we are all in a room, piling up more and more compute, waiting for something to light it up

You can also imagine a dried up forest to be closer to Taleb's antifragility argument

At some point, it might go boom (I won't say foom, to not imply fast take-off, but rather, a shock to the world system)

Aiming for more frequent, smaller, controlled booms in the forms of accidents like OpenAI's would arguably let the world to adapt better to changes, than a single, delayed boom

I am not yet sure what position I lean into. But the world's governments + industry are a complex system and should not be treated as something to be controlled easily

*Quotes a post by @kellerjordan0 (https://x.com/kellerjordan0/status/2097526284918419662); its text is omitted here because it is not covered by this site's license.*