In 2021 I dropped everything else I was doing and moved across the Pacific Ocean to join Anthropic, which I guess puts me in group three. However, I think you should also take seriously the possibility that AGI won’t change everything soon—whether because of technical limitations, policy decisions to avoid building more-capable (/dangerous) AI systems, or something which we haven’t seen coming at all. Even if you’re only wrong about the timing, you could have a remarkably bad time.
So my view is that almost nothing on your list has enough of an upside to be worth the nontrivial chance of very large downsides—though by all means spend more time with family and friends! I believe there was a period in the Cold War where many reasearchers at RAND declined to save for retirement, but saving for retirement is not actually that expensive. Save for retirement, don’t smoke, don’t procrastinate about cryonics, and live a life you think is worth living.
In 2021 I dropped everything else I was doing and moved across the Pacific Ocean to join Anthropic, which I guess puts me in group three. However, I think you should also take seriously the possibility that AGI won’t change everything soon—whether because of technical limitations, policy decisions to avoid building more-capable (/dangerous) AI systems, or something which we haven’t seen coming at all. Even if you’re only wrong about the timing, you could have a remarkably bad time.
So my view is that almost nothing on your list has enough of an upside to be worth the nontrivial chance of very large downsides—though by all means spend more time with family and friends! I believe there was a period in the Cold War where many reasearchers at RAND declined to save for retirement, but saving for retirement is not actually that expensive. Save for retirement, don’t smoke, don’t procrastinate about cryonics, and live a life you think is worth living.
And, you know, I think there are concrete reasons for hope and that careful, focussed effort can improve our odds. If AI is going to be a major focus of your life, make that productive instead of nihilistic.