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Hi I'm new to LW and came here after reading up on podcasts with authors writing about AI. That's how I found the Plan 2040 discussion. As a field biologist and earth scientist, I'm looking for thoughtful discussion about AI, AGI, ASI not only from a theoretical point of view but how my own future intersects with AI development.
In my field, the predominant discussion is about environmental impacts but on podcasts what I hear most about is market, economic, demographic and military impacts. It seems that environmental concerns, in most of the serious analysis of AI I've seen, are treated as a secondary concern. I've had a hard time verifying whether that's true or if it's just a perception held by those who are more interested in other things.
In my insular world of biologists, you would expect the environment to be the main concern. Among my peers, there's nearly a disbelief of the potential for genuine ASI. (I take it seriously) But the last time I had the chance to spend a few hours discussing it with biologists was October 2025. A lot of literal and proverbial water has flowed under the bridge since then.
My question is: When we speak of cultural alignment and AI, how do we rank where to invest our time and attention now, both on a personal level and on a local and global community basis? As a biologist, I want to make some personal life decisions.
If it’s worth saying, but not worth its own post, here's a place to put it.
If you are new to LessWrong, here's the place to introduce yourself. Personal stories, anecdotes, or just general comments on how you found us and what you hope to get from the site and community are invited. This is also the place to discuss feature requests and other ideas you have for the site, if you don't want to write a full top-level post.
If you're new to the community, you can start reading the Highlights from the Sequences, a collection of posts about the core ideas of LessWrong.
If you want to explore the community more, I recommend reading the Library, checking recent Curated posts, seeing if there are any meetups in your area, and checking out the Getting Started section of the LessWrong FAQ. If you want to orient to the content on the site, you can also check out the Concepts section.
The Open Thread tag is here. The Open Thread sequence is here.