Akash—thanks for the helpful compilation of recent articles and quotes. I think you’re right that the Overton window is broadening a bit more to include serious discussions of AI X-risk. (BTW, for anybody who’s familiar with contemporary Chinese culture, I’d love to know whether there are parallel developments in Chinese news media, social media, etc.)
The irony here is that the general public for many decades has seen depictions of AI X-risk in some of the most popular science fiction movies, TV shows, and novels ever made—including huge global blockbusters, such as 2001: A space odyssey (1968), The Terminator (1984), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2012). But I guess most people compartmentalized those cultural touchstones into ‘just science fiction’ rather than ‘somewhat over-dramatized depictions of potential real-world dangers’?
My suspicion is that lots of ‘wordcel’ mainstream journalists who didn’t take science fiction seriously do tend to take pronouncements from tech billionaires and top scientists seriously. But, IMHO, that’s quite unfortunate, and it reveals an important failure mode of modern media/intellectual culture—which is to treat science fiction as if it’s trivial entertainment, rather than one of our species’ most powerful ways to explore the implications of emerging technologies.
One takeaway might be, when EAs are discussing these issues with people, it might be helpful to get a sense of their views on science fiction—e.g. whether they lean towards dismissing emerging technologies as ‘just science fiction’, or whether they lean towards taking them more seriously because science fiction has taken them seriously. For example, do they treat ‘Ex Machina’ (2014) as an reason for dismissing AI risks, or as reason for understanding AI risks more deeply?
In public relations and public outreach, it’s important to ‘know one’s audience’ and to ‘target one’s market’; I think this dimension of ‘how seriously people take science fiction’ is probably a key individual-differences trait that’s worth considering when doing writing, interviews, videos, podcasts, etc.
Akash—thanks for the helpful compilation of recent articles and quotes. I think you’re right that the Overton window is broadening a bit more to include serious discussions of AI X-risk. (BTW, for anybody who’s familiar with contemporary Chinese culture, I’d love to know whether there are parallel developments in Chinese news media, social media, etc.)
The irony here is that the general public for many decades has seen depictions of AI X-risk in some of the most popular science fiction movies, TV shows, and novels ever made—including huge global blockbusters, such as 2001: A space odyssey (1968), The Terminator (1984), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2012). But I guess most people compartmentalized those cultural touchstones into ‘just science fiction’ rather than ‘somewhat over-dramatized depictions of potential real-world dangers’?
My suspicion is that lots of ‘wordcel’ mainstream journalists who didn’t take science fiction seriously do tend to take pronouncements from tech billionaires and top scientists seriously. But, IMHO, that’s quite unfortunate, and it reveals an important failure mode of modern media/intellectual culture—which is to treat science fiction as if it’s trivial entertainment, rather than one of our species’ most powerful ways to explore the implications of emerging technologies.
One takeaway might be, when EAs are discussing these issues with people, it might be helpful to get a sense of their views on science fiction—e.g. whether they lean towards dismissing emerging technologies as ‘just science fiction’, or whether they lean towards taking them more seriously because science fiction has taken them seriously. For example, do they treat ‘Ex Machina’ (2014) as an reason for dismissing AI risks, or as reason for understanding AI risks more deeply?
In public relations and public outreach, it’s important to ‘know one’s audience’ and to ‘target one’s market’; I think this dimension of ‘how seriously people take science fiction’ is probably a key individual-differences trait that’s worth considering when doing writing, interviews, videos, podcasts, etc.