In response to recent news from METR on possible RSI and likely 1-3 year timelines, I am feeling it. Heaviness in my chest, watery eyes, the works. I realized I'm currently not psychologically prepared for the world to get crazier than it already has.[1]
I think most people reading this already know ~what's best for them and this post will mostly serve as a reminder. What follows is my current plan and advice for myself.
For me, the most important things are:
Morning Routine
Bedtime Routine
Exercising
Living meditation practice (ie throughout the day)
And the most important thing to NOT do is be on my phone/screens.
[Note on getting "stuck": if you do feel emotionally awful and no IFS/CBT seems to work, I recommend "How to Reset"]
Morning Routine
I have a sunrise alarm clock (shines light to wake you up) and enjoy writing in the morning.
Bedtime Routine
At 8:30 an alarm goes off, and I watch an episode of Empress in the Palace with my wife, then we get ready for bed. Also like to journal then.
For me, aliveness is about being aware of local-details that you're experience right now ("being present") and the extreme amount of options you have available to you. This can be painful (eg if I'm feeling a lot of pain), but I do have a choice on what my mind sticks to.
While typing this, I do notice my jaw & stomach are tense (so I automatically relaxed them) and my eye hurts (so I lowered the brightness). Noticing, for me, is most of the battle.
I shoudl have dedicated sessions for gratitude (ie gratitude journaling) and relaxation (for me, "doing nothing" is nice), but my main focus is making this a living practice: something I intentionally practice throughout the day.
Most of what I've mentioned is (intentionally) obvious advice (what might be novel is the idea of a living meditation practice throughout the day, that can be sustained by journaling in the night/morning).
Again, I think most people reading this are already aware of what you should be doing to be robust to our crazy future. I highly recommend setting a 5 min timer (on the clock) now to access that wisdom of how you work best.[2]As we approach the singularity, those 5 minutes might be the most valuable time you ever spent.
This post is intended to complement Nikola's Orienting to 1 year AGI timelines post, which has a lot of great, object-level things to actually do. Very grateful for him, and hope this post helps others achieve those objectives.
recent news from METR on possible RSI and likely 1-3 year timelines
The METR report merely changed the probabilities, it's not a crux. There's now a permanent hazard rate of 5+% for very short timelines to strong ASI since at least the repeated math breakthroughs, probably earlier, and it's never going away, not while all the compute remains generally available.
In response to recent news from METR on possible RSI and likely 1-3 year timelines, I am feeling it. Heaviness in my chest, watery eyes, the works. I realized I'm currently not psychologically prepared for the world to get crazier than it already has.[1]
I think most people reading this already know ~what's best for them and this post will mostly serve as a reminder. What follows is my current plan and advice for myself.
For me, the most important things are:
And the most important thing to NOT do is be on my phone/screens.
[Note on getting "stuck": if you do feel emotionally awful and no IFS/CBT seems to work, I recommend "How to Reset"]
Morning Routine
I have a sunrise alarm clock (shines light to wake you up) and enjoy writing in the morning.
Bedtime Routine
At 8:30 an alarm goes off, and I watch an episode of Empress in the Palace with my wife, then we get ready for bed. Also like to journal then.
Exercising
Rock climbing some days & jogging to the bus stop
Living Meditation Practice
There are 3 traits I'd like to cultivate more:
For me, aliveness is about being aware of local-details that you're experience right now ("being present") and the extreme amount of options you have available to you. This can be painful (eg if I'm feeling a lot of pain), but I do have a choice on what my mind sticks to.
While typing this, I do notice my jaw & stomach are tense (so I automatically relaxed them) and my eye hurts (so I lowered the brightness). Noticing, for me, is most of the battle.
I shoudl have dedicated sessions for gratitude (ie gratitude journaling) and relaxation (for me, "doing nothing" is nice), but my main focus is making this a living practice: something I intentionally practice throughout the day.
Most of what I've mentioned is (intentionally) obvious advice (what might be novel is the idea of a living meditation practice throughout the day, that can be sustained by journaling in the night/morning).
Again, I think most people reading this are already aware of what you should be doing to be robust to our crazy future. I highly recommend setting a 5 min timer (on the clock) now to access that wisdom of how you work best.[2] As we approach the singularity, those 5 minutes might be the most valuable time you ever spent.
(So seriously, turn a 5 min timer on).
This post is intended to complement Nikola's Orienting to 1 year AGI timelines post, which has a lot of great, object-level things to actually do. Very grateful for him, and hope this post helps others achieve those objectives.
My advice is for you to listen to your advice.