Socially emergent avoidance. This is a secondary effect (and could explain anything if taken too strongly). My intuition is that there’s a freaked-out-ness around S-risks that goes deeper than mere X-risk. This freaked-out-ness might be about the things you mention about NNTs or NU-affiliation, and also “sad”. But it looks on the surface, to others, like general freaked-out-ness. When people around you are freaked out by something, you avoid talking about it. That snowballs, where people around you are avoiding talking about something, so you assume you’re supposed to avoid talking about it.
Oooh, good point! I’ve certainly observed that in myself in other areas.
Like, “No one is talking about something obvious? Then it must be forbidden to talk about and I should shut up too!” Well, no one is freaking out in that example, but if someone were, it would enhance the effect.
I find this worrying. If social dynamics have introduced such a substantial freak-out-ness about these kinds of issues, it’s hard to evaluate the true probability of them. If s-risks are indeed likely then I, as a potential victim of horrific suffering worse than any human has ever experienced, would want to be able to reasonably evaluate their probability.
Socially emergent avoidance. This is a secondary effect (and could explain anything if taken too strongly). My intuition is that there’s a freaked-out-ness around S-risks that goes deeper than mere X-risk. This freaked-out-ness might be about the things you mention about NNTs or NU-affiliation, and also “sad”. But it looks on the surface, to others, like general freaked-out-ness. When people around you are freaked out by something, you avoid talking about it. That snowballs, where people around you are avoiding talking about something, so you assume you’re supposed to avoid talking about it.
Oooh, good point! I’ve certainly observed that in myself in other areas.
Like, “No one is talking about something obvious? Then it must be forbidden to talk about and I should shut up too!” Well, no one is freaking out in that example, but if someone were, it would enhance the effect.
I find this worrying. If social dynamics have introduced such a substantial freak-out-ness about these kinds of issues, it’s hard to evaluate the true probability of them. If s-risks are indeed likely then I, as a potential victim of horrific suffering worse than any human has ever experienced, would want to be able to reasonably evaluate their probability.