22, about to graduate from UNC having done mathematics and computer science with quasi-research in mobile-based ai agents, ai for math, and ai safety. the world is turning and nobody, really, is talking about it.
To your point about the ideal culture, I'd also ask if you there's any higher leverage thing to be doing with your time? If your p(doom) is high enough and your timelines are short enough, and you're in a position to pursue this (which you are), then what else could you do with your time that is more productive? In your piece you mention that you have been spending a lot of time with friends, but also rotting and such. I think that conditioning on there being a short time before our human experience is eliminated, then the only things worth doing at that point (and maybe this was always true) are grasping at the good of human experience while it's there and as a means of supporting your mental state, and working to make any marginal impact possible towards a scenario where it doesn't become eliminated. There's no room for resignation to the end.
I find overall the argument on AI doom is similar to discussions on nihilism. Yeah okay, let's assume that nothing in the world matters because we'll all be gone or irrelevant. You're not going to just give up on your life because of that, you still have to live it. At least with the progress of AI, there's some chance that things don't go to shit, and you can still either meaningfully push down the probability of doom to the extent that it's possible for your to do so or create better opportunities for yourself in the scenario where we are still relevant.
To your point about the ideal culture, I'd also ask if you there's any higher leverage thing to be doing with your time? If your p(doom) is high enough and your timelines are short enough, and you're in a position to pursue this (which you are), then what else could you do with your time that is more productive? In your piece you mention that you have been spending a lot of time with friends, but also rotting and such. I think that conditioning on there being a short time before our human experience is eliminated, then the only things worth doing at that point (and maybe this was always true) are grasping at the good of human experience while it's there and as a means of supporting your mental state, and working to make any marginal impact possible towards a scenario where it doesn't become eliminated. There's no room for resignation to the end.
I find overall the argument on AI doom is similar to discussions on nihilism. Yeah okay, let's assume that nothing in the world matters because we'll all be gone or irrelevant. You're not going to just give up on your life because of that, you still have to live it. At least with the progress of AI, there's some chance that things don't go to shit, and you can still either meaningfully push down the probability of doom to the extent that it's possible for your to do so or create better opportunities for yourself in the scenario where we are still relevant.