I’m not saying that Michael Faraday’s work in the earlier 19th century didn’t actually contribute to existential risk, by being part of the developments ultimately enabling unfriendly AI hundreds of years after he lived. Perhaps it did. What I’m saying is that you can’t take the huge progress Michael Faraday made as evidence that rapid technological progress leads to existential risk, in order to argue that AI poses an existential risk, because the only people who believe that Michael Faraday’s work contributed to existential risk are the ones who already think that AI poses an existential risk. Your argument won’t convince anyone who isn’t already convinced.
I’m not saying that Michael Faraday’s work in the earlier 19th century didn’t actually contribute to existential risk, by being part of the developments ultimately enabling unfriendly AI hundreds of years after he lived. Perhaps it did. What I’m saying is that you can’t take the huge progress Michael Faraday made as evidence that rapid technological progress leads to existential risk, in order to argue that AI poses an existential risk, because the only people who believe that Michael Faraday’s work contributed to existential risk are the ones who already think that AI poses an existential risk. Your argument won’t convince anyone who isn’t already convinced.