ScienceMon🔸
Posts 2
Comments6
Thanks for those links, Tristan! It felt a bit like @Jackson Wagner's comment was scolding me directly:
The idea that a neartermist funder becomes convinced that world-transformative AGI is right around the corner, and then takes action by dumping all their money into fast-acting welfare enhancements, instead of trying to prepare for or influence the immense changes that will shortly occur, almost seems like parody.
Why do you believe that capital won't be useful?
It sounds like we're around the same age, both a few years out of a PhD (mine was in bio). I'm happy to email/talk 1-on-1 with you about this:
- Do not continue down the academic path. Your mind and body are clearly telling you to stop! Instead, start applying for jobs as you wind down your ongoing projects.
- Probably don't start a business right now. Not unless you have a major technical edge in a lucrative area and a suite of business-relevant skills (I couldn't infer this from your post).
- If your internships were at large/established companies, I would be unsurprised that they went poorly. There are stark cultural differences between academia and the corporate world.
- Consider joining a startup. Culturally, this will be a smoother transition than to big corporate. You will be paid much more than you are as a postdoc. The people around you will generally be happier than your academic colleagues. And you'll build skills that are relevant to starting your own business one day.
Academia is wonderful in many ways, but it teaches people that life is linear, which is a damn lie. Life isn't linear! You have decades ahead of you that will be filled with personal growth and bringing happiness to other people.
Thanks for this feedback, Joseph. The bullet points I wrote were for sure overly simplified. I was trying to put myself into the shoes of an open-minded Chinese citizen, who has no doubt absorbed more pro-China propaganda than either of us has.
"How would you try to convince an open-minded Chinese citizen that it really would be better for America to develop AGI first?"
If it is possible to convince Chinese AI engineers that "losing the race" is in their best interest, then that would be a huge win for everyone. It would give the West more breathing room to develop AGI safely.