This is a special post for quick takes by don't_wanna_be_stupid_any_more. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
for the former lurkers on this site, what was your first post about? how long did it take you to make it (or just muster the will to try)? and how well did it do?
and for current lurkers, are you planning to participate or are you fine with simply observing? if so why?
can someone please explain to me why "if anyone builds it, everyone dies" is not a free eBook/blog post?
like seriously if someone told me there is a detailed case for a possible imminent existential risk with possible solutions included but i had to pay to see it, i would have dismissed it as another fearmongering doomsday grift.
if you are really sincere about an extinction level risks why hide your arguments behind a paywall? why not make it free so as many people can see it as possible?
the very fact that this book has a price tag on it in an age where publishing an eBook is practically free puts the authors motives in question.
Books released by standard publishers, sold at bookstores, get much more media attention and readership than free e-books.
I don't think this is true. AI 2027 got much more attention than basically anything on the NYT bestseller list, and seems reasonably-well described as a "free eBook/blog post".
(IMO I think publishing a book is reasonable, but I think trying to write an online compendium to AI risk would have been a better move and been more successful. Nobody actually reads books, and books perform very badly in the modern social-media dominated media landscape)
One idea I came up with today, is that the ideal book would also have an online website where you can read it all, conditional on you having bought a book. Essentially a paywall that is also a measurable book sale. And otherwise you can just get highlighted extracts from each chapter.
I am not entirely sure this is true but even if it was, is the media attention of publishing a book through standards publishers worth putting the authors motives in question?
This isn't just another novel or self help book, this is a book written with the explicit purpose of stopping the Apocalypse, trying to make money out of it makes no sense in context (unless all the money goes into charity or something like that)
is the media attention of publishing a book through standards publishers worth putting the authors motives in question?
Yes. It's approximately the whole point. The authors have already produced massive amounts of free online content raising the alarm about AI risk. Those materials have had substantial impact, persuading the type of person who tends to read and be interested in long blog posts, of that kind. But that is a limited audience.
The point of publishing a proper book is precisely to reach a larger audience, and to shift the overton window of what's views are known to be respectable.