I appreciate you thinking through ideas of presentation to new people! I’ve also spent some time thinking about how to make things not seem as weird, and when that’s useful.
One thought is had is that, while it’s true that pandemics are really bad and don’t need to be described as an existential risk for that to be true, it feels like it relies strongly on other people thinking “what’s an actual existential risk” and then back generating reasons why those things are also bad separate from that. I think there are costs and benefits to that dual step process, but one cost is that we lose the focus on the actual discerning principle that generates good ideas, which seems more important to me than communicating those good ideas well (though I’d be really sad if we failed at getting a bunch of CS students thinking about AI Safety only because of framings).
Yes, this is true and very important. We should by no means lose sight of existential risks as a discerning principle! I think the best framing to use will vary a lot case-by-case, and often the one you outline will be the better option. Thanks for the feedback!
I appreciate you thinking through ideas of presentation to new people! I’ve also spent some time thinking about how to make things not seem as weird, and when that’s useful.
One thought is had is that, while it’s true that pandemics are really bad and don’t need to be described as an existential risk for that to be true, it feels like it relies strongly on other people thinking “what’s an actual existential risk” and then back generating reasons why those things are also bad separate from that. I think there are costs and benefits to that dual step process, but one cost is that we lose the focus on the actual discerning principle that generates good ideas, which seems more important to me than communicating those good ideas well (though I’d be really sad if we failed at getting a bunch of CS students thinking about AI Safety only because of framings).
Yes, this is true and very important. We should by no means lose sight of existential risks as a discerning principle! I think the best framing to use will vary a lot case-by-case, and often the one you outline will be the better option. Thanks for the feedback!