Akash—thanks for an interesting, unusual, and timely post. Many of us could benefit from some new tips, tricks, and mind-hacks to stay motivated even in the face of despair and apparently low likelihoods of success in certain cause areas (such as slowing down AI capabilities development until AI alignment catches up).
We might have to rediscover some of the more traditional heroic virtues, which often involved fighting against truly hopeless odds, and maintaining one’s drive, integrity, grit, and determination even when there seems no rational reason to keep fighting.
The modern, watered-down, Hollywood version of heroism means ‘getting knocked down in act 2, and then getting back up and triumphing in act 3’. Whereas the more primal, pagan, tragic version involves getting knocked down, and getting back up, and losing to an overwhelming foe, yet maintaining magnificent valor even in the face of death and failure. I’m thinking of those rare genuinely tragic movies such as ’300′ (2006), ‘Valhalla Rising’ (2009), and ‘The Northman’ (2022).
We EAs have to be prepared for the possibility that we might not reduce X risks enough to avoid extinction. But we should be prepared to go down fighting anyway—even if it seems utterly irrational to keep fighting. It’s a matter of maintaining an ironclad ‘subjective costly commitment’ to the cause, as analyzed by people like evolutionary psychiatrist Randolph Nesse (in this book) and evolutionary economist Robert Frank (in this book).
The reason for keeping this faith, even when it seems hopeless, is a matter of epistemic humility: the mind can talk itself into a state of despair through motivated reasoning based on pessimism, but a heroic, tragic commitment to keep fighting can buy some time until more information comes in, or a new strategy becomes apparent, or the cavalry arrives.
Akash—thanks for an interesting, unusual, and timely post. Many of us could benefit from some new tips, tricks, and mind-hacks to stay motivated even in the face of despair and apparently low likelihoods of success in certain cause areas (such as slowing down AI capabilities development until AI alignment catches up).
We might have to rediscover some of the more traditional heroic virtues, which often involved fighting against truly hopeless odds, and maintaining one’s drive, integrity, grit, and determination even when there seems no rational reason to keep fighting.
The modern, watered-down, Hollywood version of heroism means ‘getting knocked down in act 2, and then getting back up and triumphing in act 3’. Whereas the more primal, pagan, tragic version involves getting knocked down, and getting back up, and losing to an overwhelming foe, yet maintaining magnificent valor even in the face of death and failure. I’m thinking of those rare genuinely tragic movies such as ’300′ (2006), ‘Valhalla Rising’ (2009), and ‘The Northman’ (2022).
We EAs have to be prepared for the possibility that we might not reduce X risks enough to avoid extinction. But we should be prepared to go down fighting anyway—even if it seems utterly irrational to keep fighting. It’s a matter of maintaining an ironclad ‘subjective costly commitment’ to the cause, as analyzed by people like evolutionary psychiatrist Randolph Nesse (in this book) and evolutionary economist Robert Frank (in this book).
The reason for keeping this faith, even when it seems hopeless, is a matter of epistemic humility: the mind can talk itself into a state of despair through motivated reasoning based on pessimism, but a heroic, tragic commitment to keep fighting can buy some time until more information comes in, or a new strategy becomes apparent, or the cavalry arrives.