2026-02-14
I don't think I am being paranoid
Disclaimer
- Quick Note
- Contains politically sensitive info
- Speaking aloud, and I haven't fully thought it through
- Target audience - My mind simulation of atleast some of my friends
- Yes, I have gotten some actual sleep and food and stuff now, and I am sober now, although my sleep schedule is still quite off
Main
- My mind simulation of atleast one person I have met says that some of my recent posts reek of paranoia - for instance my claim that Sam Altman will personally track me down and find a way to stop me.
- Here are some data points for why I don't think this is paranoia.
- I am one of the very few people (possibly the only person) on Earth to write (what I think is) a high quality public guide for how to leak classified info against US govt, when US govt colludes with AI companies. I have messaged lots of people at these companies and I have proof (I can't reveal) that atleast some of them have read it. I have spoken to a non-zero number of people working at these companies. I have spoken to a non-zero number of people who turned down job offers from these companies.
- I am one of the few people openly writing about the pros and cons of assassinating AI company CEOs. I know lots of people shitpost and edgelord on social media about assassinating different leaders. Again, the relevant factor is high quality. (My assassination post is not yet that high quality but I can increase the quality if I spend more time on it.)
- I know lots of technical people just have a respect for competence and high quality. That alone is a reason they may reshare and further broadcast stuff I do.
- I am one of the first few people on Earth to organise a hunger strike against the AI companies. I have interviewed people who have already been sued and arrested by the AI companies.
- EA/LW spaces are already fairly low trust. Some of the senior people at Anthropic or CEA seem openly malevolent and borrowing from the Ray Dalio playbook for how to gossip information. (Have you read it? If no please go read it then come back to me.) Some of the junior people also have trust issues and also use gossip networks to (IMO unsuccessfully) protect themselves from getting screwed over. People like Oliver Habryka are openly telling everyone that they want to play this role of publicly investigating everyone, and I have spoken to such people too. Some such people end up with a generalised distrust in everyone, which is not actually productive. I have met atleast a few people like this, hence I get it. (At a human level I get it. At a professional level, this level of distrust achieves not that much.) Anyway my point with all this is that I'm aware that these gossip networks can directly reach members of the US intelligence community only 2 or 3 degrees of connection away from me.
- I have already had conversation with atleast a few important people whose identities I can't reveal. (Not politician or billionaire-level important. But also not unimportant.) This again tells me that if I continue on my current life path, I will probably reach a lot more such people soon.
- The reason I am not increasing my opsec level and going fully anonymous (as many people have recommended to me) is that I don't think it can actually be done. I think many of the people giving me this sort of advice haven't actually thought it through.
- Long-term anonymity against nation state level actors is more-or-less hopeless for a long list of reasons, the biggest one being that maintaining a social circle that can successfully isolate from rest of society that hard, and yet achieve important goals, while actively being pursued by nation state actors, can't actually be done. You can go read the history of a long list of groups that have tried. I have read the backstories and blogs of almost every important software developer turned activist who has tried to do something like this.
- The internet has made all of planet Earth a global village. There is only so far you can get by trying to pre-compute everything in your head.
- So many people in EA/LW spaces I meet seem like they're obsessed with precomputing other people's reactions to them and protecting their worthless reputations. Because long-term anonymity is not possible (for non-powerful people like me), long-term precomputation processes are also not possible. How do I explain to people in simple words that if they are not a billionaire or a politician or attempting to become one or attempting to directly fight one - then their reputations are worthless. None of you have any actual power, none of you are on track to acquiring actual power and therefore your reputations are worthless. $10 million is not actual power because what is the use of $10 million when the Machine God wakes up and eats the Earth. Are you fucking stupid or what?
- Since the internet has made all of planet Earth a global village, that means I am trapped in this hell with you. If I am trapped in this hell with you, I may as well also make loud and clear that you are also trapped in this hell with me.
- If I am to die due to ASI, I will go out loudly with a bang. I will not stay still and die quietly. That is not who I am.
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