Belief in your impending doom is terrible for your mental heath
I think by impending doom you mean AI doom after a few years or decades, so “impending” from a civilizational perspective, not from an individual human perspective. If I misinterpret you, please disregard this post.
I disagree on your mental health point. Main lines of argument: people who lose belief in heaven seem to be fine, cultures that believe in oblivion seem to be fine, old people seem to be fine, etc. Also, we evolved to be mortal, so we should be surprised if evolution has left us mentally ill-prepared for our mortality.
However, I discovered/remembered that depression is a common side-effect of terminal illness. See Living with a Terminal Illness. Perhaps that is where you are coming from? There is also Death row phenomenon, but that seems to be more about extended solitary confinement than impending doom.
Grief is common in people facing the end of their lives as a result of a terminal illness. It’s a feeling that can cause a terminally ill person to experience even more pain than they do from their illness. However, it’s considered a normal reaction to their situation.
But in many terminally ill people, grief evolves into depression. In fact, researchers at Baylor University Medical Center believe it affects up to 77 percent of people with a terminal illness.
Experts say the risks of depression increases as a disease advances and causes more painful or uncomfortable symptoms. The more a person’s body changes, the less control they feel over their lives.
I don’t think this is closely analogous to AI doom. A terminal illness might mean a life expectancy measured in months, whereas we probably have a few years or decades. Also our lives will probably continue to improve in the lead up to AI doom, where terminal illnesses come with a side order of pain and disability. On the other hand, a terminal illness doesn’t include the destruction of everything we value.
Overall, I think that belief in AI doom is a closer match to belief in oblivion than belief in cancer and don’t expect it to cause mental health issues until it is much closer. On a personal note, I’ve placed > 50% probability on AI doom for a few years now, and my mental health has been fine as far as I can tell.
However, belief in your impending doom, when combined with belief that “Belief in your impending doom is terrible for your mental heath”, is probably terrible for your mental health. Also, belief that “Belief in your impending doom is terrible for your mental heath” could cause motivated reasoning that makes it harder to salvage value in the face of impending doom.
I think by impending doom you mean AI doom after a few years or decades, so “impending” from a civilizational perspective, not from an individual human perspective. If I misinterpret you, please disregard this post.
I disagree on your mental health point. Main lines of argument: people who lose belief in heaven seem to be fine, cultures that believe in oblivion seem to be fine, old people seem to be fine, etc. Also, we evolved to be mortal, so we should be surprised if evolution has left us mentally ill-prepared for our mortality.
However, I discovered/remembered that depression is a common side-effect of terminal illness. See Living with a Terminal Illness. Perhaps that is where you are coming from? There is also Death row phenomenon, but that seems to be more about extended solitary confinement than impending doom.
I don’t think this is closely analogous to AI doom. A terminal illness might mean a life expectancy measured in months, whereas we probably have a few years or decades. Also our lives will probably continue to improve in the lead up to AI doom, where terminal illnesses come with a side order of pain and disability. On the other hand, a terminal illness doesn’t include the destruction of everything we value.
Overall, I think that belief in AI doom is a closer match to belief in oblivion than belief in cancer and don’t expect it to cause mental health issues until it is much closer. On a personal note, I’ve placed > 50% probability on AI doom for a few years now, and my mental health has been fine as far as I can tell.
However, belief in your impending doom, when combined with belief that “Belief in your impending doom is terrible for your mental heath”, is probably terrible for your mental health. Also, belief that “Belief in your impending doom is terrible for your mental heath” could cause motivated reasoning that makes it harder to salvage value in the face of impending doom.