“How are you coping with the end of the world?” journalists sometimes ask me… The journalist is imagining a story that is about me, and about whether or not I am going insane...
Seems too cynical. I can imagine myself as a journalist asking you that question not because I’m hoping to write a throw-away cliche of an article, but because if I take seriously what you’re saying about AGI risk, you’re on the cutting edge of coping with that, and the rest of us will have to cope with that eventually, and we might have an easier time of it if we can learn from your path.
I would of course take the question very differently from a journalist who had otherwise dealt with that slight inconvenience of trying to get to grips with an idea, and started to seem worried; instead of having had the brilliant idea of writing a Relatable Character-Focused Story instead.
Perhaps I overestimate how much I can deduce from tone and context, but to me it seems like there’s a visible departure from the norm for the person who becomes worried themselves and wonders “How will people handle it?” versus the kid visiting the zoo to look at the strange creatures who believe strange things.
Seems too cynical. I can imagine myself as a journalist asking you that question not because I’m hoping to write a throw-away cliche of an article, but because if I take seriously what you’re saying about AGI risk, you’re on the cutting edge of coping with that, and the rest of us will have to cope with that eventually, and we might have an easier time of it if we can learn from your path.
I would of course take the question very differently from a journalist who had otherwise dealt with that slight inconvenience of trying to get to grips with an idea, and started to seem worried; instead of having had the brilliant idea of writing a Relatable Character-Focused Story instead.
Perhaps I overestimate how much I can deduce from tone and context, but to me it seems like there’s a visible departure from the norm for the person who becomes worried themselves and wonders “How will people handle it?” versus the kid visiting the zoo to look at the strange creatures who believe strange things.