Is AI going to kill us all, or is this all just more political machinations? I’m agnostic and stoic, as usual. As a hardy survivor of Y2K, the 2012 Maya Long Count, and the repeal of net neutrality, I tend to be suspicious of apocalyptic doomsaying, seeing it as a perennial weird fetish hardwired into our retarded species. Granted, I could be wrong this time, but I don’t know enough to have a meaningful opinion, and there’s nothing I can do about it anyway, so if worse comes to worst, I may as well go out with dignity, not soiling my britches and wailing to an uncaring sky. If the catastrophe doesn’t occur, you’ve sacrificed real years to an imaginary future. If it does occur, having spent the preceding years frightened and distracted didn’t improve the outcome. Either way, obsessive rumination has a poor return.
However, there’s another way to look at this. Let’s assume you refuse to be pessimistic. In fact, let’s further assume that you remain excited about AI’s potential and expect it to be integrated into society without catastrophic disruption. If the worst happens, well, you won’t care about being wrong, because you’re dead. But if this all turns out to be a tempestuous teacup, you will get to LYAO at all the hysterical ninnies for the rest of your days. You will get to do the “told you so” dance as often as you could wish. It’s an easy choice when put that way. I think we can call this “Niemand’s Wager.”