It feels quite disorienting to be alive right now. Or, I should say, it feels quite disorienting to be alive right now if you spend a concerning amount of time on X.com, do not possess strong cognitive defenses, have yet to internalize that we (humanity) are all in this together, and that the sky is still blue and always has been.

I feel disoriented because I am a bit shocked at the rapid pace of AI progress, more shocked at the reactions of people working closely in AI labs - and I am trying to calibrate how worried I should feel, and what purpose this worry serves.

I think it is unfair for God to have made me single during such a period in history, when really, the only thing there is to do for us ordinary folk is to get some hugs and go on with our days. Alas, yes, god is teaching me some lesson ... i am listening ... yes ... it is my fault - amen!

It is lovely logging onto Twitter in the morning, after having recently quit my job, (in AI policy, no less!) and reading: “If you have a job right now, do everything you can to hold on to it”. In truth, I quit because I have been slowly withering away and felt it important to try to feel alive again. And I believe somewhere deep down that in a world where AI kills us all or frees us all from wage labour and results in a utopia or in a world where none of this really comes to fruition and we just continue continuing on - the art of "feeling alive" is a form of mastery worth sustaining.

Whether taking a gap year at this point in time was a good idea or not, is a question I do not care for. I have no more capacity for regret left within me, I simply act, and meet all my consequences with love. Overthinking and careful decision-making have ruined me far more then recklessness ever could.

That being said, I do not really know how to orient myself.

Every few months, a slew of senior AI safety workers at top AI companies will quit their jobs - causing everyone to panic. Recently, this man quit to go pursue a poetry degree. I responded to him, "you are my hero" - he responded, "thank you, I hope you are well :)".

My insticnt re what to do is some combination of use AI agentic tools, take some courses on AI governance and AGI strategy to "upskill" (as I downskill the rest of my cognitive forces), and go spend time completely isolated as far away from humans as physcially possible. While also, of course, somehow finding a husband.

Freaky ones

“I’ve been meaning to write about how early covid is a good analogy for this moment in AI for months and unfortunately I think at this point we might get the singularity before I get around to it”

“It would therefore be wise to expect 2026 to be a more rapid year of AI progress than all years that have come before. Indeed, this is probably the conservative forecast at this point.” 

“I guess there's maybe a 10-20% chance of AI causing human extinction in the coming decades, but I feel more distressed about it than even that suggests—I think because in the case where it doesn't cause human extinction, I find it hard to imagine life not going kind of off the rails ... Even if we don't die, it still feels like everything is coming to an end.”

“I don't know why this week became the tipping point, but nearly every software engineer I've talked to is experiencing some degree of mental health crisis.”

“10 years from now humanity is either extinct or we will live in a fully automated economy - a sci-fi world of relative magic.” 

“Even if ur not a "doomer", even if u have no fear of total destruction, there is a monumental impending loss. these are the very last few years we have to *do* or *achieve* anything in a way that matters”

“So the question is how to survive what is looking to be a decade of white collar disruption with a plan to get back on the horse when the next opportunity comes around. Or do you opt out and leave it all behind (… and for what?)”

“Went out to lunch. People were smiling and enjoying their day. But they don’t know that accountants are going away. Lawyers. Radiologists. Journalists. Marketers. Gig workers. Factory workers. Long-haul truckers. Developers 

If they knew they wouldn’t be smiling. God help them”

Positive ones

Market signal: many of the best folks at AI labs that have left for their own thing recently are working on AI for science. (Also, "hobby is hiking in wilderness for weeks" is a very positive signal as well, as far as I'm concerned! Good luck!)

On research assistantship:  https://x.com/cblatts/status/2019596513547067396

I don't understand the fear and future dooming around LLM tools. They are genuinely useful now and pretty delightful to use.

Human labor as a category does not look like it is going to be replaced with chat bots. There is so much more to build.