I suspect most of us occupy more than one position in this taxonomy. I’m a little bit doomer and a little bit accelerationist. I theres significant, possibly world ending, danger in AI, but I also think as someone who works on climate change in my day job, that climate change is a looming significant civilization ending risk or worse (20%-ish) for humanity and worry humans alone might not be able to solve this thing. Lord help us if the siberian permafrost melts,we might be boned as a species.
So as a result, I just don’t know how to balance these two potential x risk dangers. No answers from me, alas, but I think we need to understand that for many, maybe most of us, we haven’t really planted our flag in any of these camps exclusively, we’re still information gathering.
Thanks for this comment. I totally agree and I think I need to make this clearer. I mentioned elsewhere ITT that I realized that I need to do a better job distinguishing between “positions” vs. “people” especially when debate gets heated.
These are tough issues with a lot of uncertainty and I think smart people are wrestling with these.
If I can risk the “personal blog” tag: I showed an earlier draft of the essay that became this post to a friend who is very smart but doesn’t follow these issues very closely. He put me on the spot by asking me “ok, so which are you? You are putting everyone else in a box, so which box are you in?” And it made me realize, “I don’t know—it depends on which day you ask me!”
I suspect most of us occupy more than one position in this taxonomy. I’m a little bit doomer and a little bit accelerationist. I theres significant, possibly world ending, danger in AI, but I also think as someone who works on climate change in my day job, that climate change is a looming significant civilization ending risk or worse (20%-ish) for humanity and worry humans alone might not be able to solve this thing. Lord help us if the siberian permafrost melts,we might be boned as a species.
So as a result, I just don’t know how to balance these two potential x risk dangers. No answers from me, alas, but I think we need to understand that for many, maybe most of us, we haven’t really planted our flag in any of these camps exclusively, we’re still information gathering.
Thanks for this comment. I totally agree and I think I need to make this clearer. I mentioned elsewhere ITT that I realized that I need to do a better job distinguishing between “positions” vs. “people” especially when debate gets heated.
These are tough issues with a lot of uncertainty and I think smart people are wrestling with these.
If I can risk the “personal blog” tag: I showed an earlier draft of the essay that became this post to a friend who is very smart but doesn’t follow these issues very closely. He put me on the spot by asking me “ok, so which are you? You are putting everyone else in a box, so which box are you in?” And it made me realize, “I don’t know—it depends on which day you ask me!”