[ExI] AI and Eliezer

[Adrian Tymes]

On Wed, Mar 20, 2024, 1:20 PM efc--- via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Mar 2024, Dylan Distasio via extropy-chat wrote:
> > You strike to the quick of it!  He's willing to bomb non-compliant data
> centers out of existence.   After his Time interview, I can't
> > take him seriously any longer.
> >
> > Climate change is another great example, and I would add a third playing
> out in real time now in the US (and on this list), some have
> > an irrational fear that Trump is an infinite threat and are pretty much
> willing to do ANYTHING to prevent his re-election.
>
> That makes me think that this is a broader problem that cuts through many
> different issues.
>
> How come we became so extreme in our opinions?
>
> Surely "social media" is too simple an explanation. I would think that
> perhaps we have several factors coming together in a polarizing storm
> here.
>

That is a good point.  To take Trump as an example: while he is a threat,
his threat is not infinite.  4 years of him in office has shown that his
reelection would be survivable for almost all Americans - even if measures
are in place to make his next term worse, unless anyone seriously believes
he could stay in office past the end of his second term (or indefinitely).

Perhaps part of the issue is that so many people believe they have so
little to lose, relative to the scale of the threat.  For instance, some
eco-activist might think that reducing the chance of global meltdown by 1%
far exceeds the potential value of anything else they could possibly hope
to achieve with their lives.

Disasterbation plays a part too: convincing oneself that there is this one
absolutely justified course of action that can never be questioned as the
best thing one could have done, relieves the burden of having to think and
assess one's choices, which a number of people are averse to.  It is the
same itch that religion scratches, in a time when many are finding that
religion does not work well enough (see the increasing publicity of moral
failings of large, organized religions, as well as the increasing number of
things that lay people see a need to understand but that the most often
encountered religions do not adequately explain).  This creates an
incentive to think along lines that justify that sort of conclusion, and to
ignore evidence to the contrary.

>
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