I think there are decent nihilistic justifications for working on AI safety (e.g. it’s fun, it’s cool, it makes me feel important, etc).
I think you are misunderstanding the implications of nihilism. Copying from here:
Compare “I want the oppressed masses to find justice” with “I’ve been standing too long, I want to sit down”. These two “wants” are fundamentally built out of the same mind-stuff. They both derive from positive valence, which in turn ultimately comes from innate drives (specifically, mainly social drives in the first case, and homeostatic energy-conserving drives in the second case). So if “true morality” or “true human morality” or whatever doesn’t exist, then that does not constitute a reason to sit down rather than to seek justice. You still have to make decisions. That’s what I meant by “nihilism is not decision-relevant”, or Yudkowsky by “What would you do without morality?”. …
However, nihilism is not decision-relevant. Imagine being a nihilist, deciding whether to spend your free time trying to bring about an awesome post-AGI utopia, vs sitting on the couch and watching TV. Well, if you’re a nihilist, then the awesome post-AGI utopia doesn’t matter. But watching TV doesn’t matter either. Watching TV entails less exertion of effort. But that doesn’t matter either. Watching TV is more fun (umm, for some people). But having fun doesn’t matter either. There’s no reason to throw yourself at a difficult project. There’s no reason NOT to throw yourself at a difficult project! So nihilism is just not a helpful decision criterion!! What else is there?
I propose a different starting point—what I call Dentin’s prayer: Why do I exist? Because the universe happens to be set up this way. Why do I care (about anything or everything)? Simply because my genetics, atoms, molecules, and processing architecture are set up in a way that happens to care. …
What would you call the thing where it turns out that all my morality-flavoured wants are nonsense, but all my selfish-flavoured wants still make sense? Can we sub that term into the OP in place of ‘nihilism’?
Or do you deny the premise that there are different flavours? I personally really feel like I can taste the flavours.
I think you are misunderstanding the implications of nihilism. Copying from here:
Here’s that link in the last sentence:
What would you call the thing where it turns out that all my morality-flavoured wants are nonsense, but all my selfish-flavoured wants still make sense? Can we sub that term into the OP in place of ‘nihilism’?
Or do you deny the premise that there are different flavours? I personally really feel like I can taste the flavours.
The link is currently broken, this appears to be from [Valence series] 2. Valence & Normativity