David Deutsch, physicist and author of *The Beginning of Infinity*, explores the intersection of Popperian epistemology, progress, and the future of intelligence. Human progress is neither inevitable nor limited by nature; it is a continuous process of problem-solving driven by creativity and the correction of errors. While current AI models like ChatGPT excel at pattern matching, they lack the creative agency required for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which must possess the freedom to disobey and conjecture. True optimism lies in the principle that all problems are soluble, provided that institutions of criticism and consent remain intact. The eventual creation of a universal constructor—a machine capable of any physically possible transformation—will mark a civilizational shift by eliminating physical toil and reorienting human effort entirely toward the creation of knowledge. This worldview rejects utopianism in favor of piecemeal improvements, emphasizing that the Enlightenment's greatest contribution is the ongoing tradition of identifying and resolving parochial flaws.
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