Advocate for a global moratorium on AGI. Try and buy (us all) more time. Learn the basics of AGI safety (e.g. AGI Safety Fundamentals) so you are able to discuss the reasons why we need a moratorium in detail. YMMV, but this is what I’m doing as a financially independent 42 year-old. I feel increasingly like all my other work is basically just rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
In a similar vein, I’m an historian who teaches as an adjunct instructor. While I like my job, I am feeling more and more like I might not be able to count on this profession to make a living over the long term due to LLMs making a lot of the “bottom-rung” work in the social sciences redundant. (There will continue to be demand for top-notch research work for a while longer because LLMs aren’t quite up to that yet, but that’s not what I do currently).
Would there be any point in someone like me going back to college to get another 4-year degree in computer science at this moment? Or is that field just as at-risk of being made technologically-obsolete (especially the bottom rungs of the ladder)? Perhaps I should remain as an historian where, since I have about 10 years of experience in that field, I’m at least on the middle rungs of the ladder and might escape technological obsolescence if AGI gobbles up the bottom rungs.
And let’s say I did get a computer science degree, or even did some sort of more-focused coding boot camp type of thing. By the time I finished my training, would my learning even remain relevant, or are things already moving too quickly to make bottom-rung coding knowledge useful?
Let’s say I didn’t care about making a living and just wanted to maximize my contributions to AI alignment. Would I be of more use to AI alignment by continuing my “general well-rounded public intellectual education” as an historian (especially one who dabbles in adjacent fields like economics and philosophy probably more than average), or would I be able to make greater contributions to AI alignment by becoming more technically proficient in computer science?
FWIW, if my kids were freshmen at a top college, I would advise them to continue schooling, but switch to CS and take every AI-related course that was available if they hasn’t already done so.
I am a literal freshman, and not feeling super optimistic about the future right now. How should I think about how to spend my time?
Advocate for a global moratorium on AGI. Try and buy (us all) more time. Learn the basics of AGI safety (e.g. AGI Safety Fundamentals) so you are able to discuss the reasons why we need a moratorium in detail. YMMV, but this is what I’m doing as a financially independent 42 year-old. I feel increasingly like all my other work is basically just rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
In a similar vein, I’m an historian who teaches as an adjunct instructor. While I like my job, I am feeling more and more like I might not be able to count on this profession to make a living over the long term due to LLMs making a lot of the “bottom-rung” work in the social sciences redundant. (There will continue to be demand for top-notch research work for a while longer because LLMs aren’t quite up to that yet, but that’s not what I do currently).
Would there be any point in someone like me going back to college to get another 4-year degree in computer science at this moment? Or is that field just as at-risk of being made technologically-obsolete (especially the bottom rungs of the ladder)? Perhaps I should remain as an historian where, since I have about 10 years of experience in that field, I’m at least on the middle rungs of the ladder and might escape technological obsolescence if AGI gobbles up the bottom rungs.
And let’s say I did get a computer science degree, or even did some sort of more-focused coding boot camp type of thing. By the time I finished my training, would my learning even remain relevant, or are things already moving too quickly to make bottom-rung coding knowledge useful?
Let’s say I didn’t care about making a living and just wanted to maximize my contributions to AI alignment. Would I be of more use to AI alignment by continuing my “general well-rounded public intellectual education” as an historian (especially one who dabbles in adjacent fields like economics and philosophy probably more than average), or would I be able to make greater contributions to AI alignment by becoming more technically proficient in computer science?
FWIW, if my kids were freshmen at a top college, I would advise them to continue schooling, but switch to CS and take every AI-related course that was available if they hasn’t already done so.