2026-02-13
Maybe I should pre-commit to killing atleast one person?
Disclaimer
- Quick Note. Incomplete
- I don't yet actually endorse this. Just babbling aloud here
Main
- Until fairly recently this was basically not an idea I was taking that seriously, but more thought experiment-like. There is a huge amount of context behind why, which I haven't sat and typed right now.
- For instance a very load bearing part of my world model is Power buys you distance from the crime by Elizabeth or siderea's analysis of. class or similar type of thinking. This applies both to tech billionaires who have no idea what the downsides of their apps even are, and people who say started dark web and also have no idea what the downsides of their work are.
- Another very important piece of my world model is that very close to literally everyone on Earth has some rationalisation for why they're a good person. I would not be surprised if this includes Kim Jong Un, for example.
- Another important piece of my world model is that coordinated mass violence and the resulting suppression of people means that even if you want to build an internet-scale app the right way, and track the harms of your own app, you literally will not be able to do it beyond a point. People using your app are facing all sorts of incentives to not tell you the truth, just as you are facing all sorts of incentives to not tell them the truth.
- People have all sorts of creative rationalisations for why they are not responsible for these second and third order effects.
- Now though it seems increasingly clear that I maybe do need to actually be serious about this.
- I need to put up attractor signals so that all the people with "zero violence is acceptable" heuristic fuck off from my life, and I also need to put up attractor signals so that all the people with "any amount of violence is fine, dont think about it clearly" heuristic fuck off from my life. (If you are reading this post then yes this very sentence is that attractor signal.)
- I especially mean this for people online. I have to put up attractor signals online, to attract people to get feedback from.
- All the three "reference classes of true ambition" I listed out mostly have some blood on their hands, directly or indirectly. There are some exceptions and I need to list those out.
- I need to make it very clear that this is not just thought experiments, this is not a fucking game, I am not just some intellectual writer or shitposter, I am personally going to actually act on my own ideas in the real world, and actual people are going to die as a result, and this is in fact on my head, and this is something I have to endorse on reflection and actually feel okay about in the long term.
Side Note
- I am vaguely worried that I installed a mind simulation of a friend while writing this post, in a way that's bad actually. It's possible they read this and I want to be kinder to this specific friend.
- I am starting to realise that maybe capitalism and democracy are the biggest rationalisations of them all.
- See also: older article by Yudkowsky making this exact point
- You have no idea how weird it feels to run into various failure modes in actual reality and find that oh, someone has run into this exact specific failure mode atleast some years ago. I recently also noticed another failure mode I ran into while reading Ngo's writing, and another failure mode I ran into while reading Swartz' writing on productivity.
- I think I will compile a list of lots of productivity advice. The fact that lots of people's productivity advice doesn't even mention things like moral strain and moral injury, makes me assume that a lot of people on this list just basically mindlessly assumed capitalism and democracy are the answer to how to deal with ASI.
- Alexey Guzey has a list, which in turn links to more lists.
- Mandatory disclaimer - Alexey Guzey works at OpenAI which is on track to end all life on Earth or similar. Just because I read his content or maybe even like some of it doesn't mean I actually endorse what he is now doing.
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