It seems unlikely that joining a specific elite is terminally valuable as such, except to ephemeral subagents that were built for instrumental reasons to pursue it.
It seems quite likely that people seek to join whatever elite they can as a means to some more fundamental ends. Those of us who aren’t driven to join the elite are probably satisfying our hunger to pursue those more fundamental ends in other ways.
For example, people might seek elite status in part to win security against bad fortune or against powerful enemies. But it might seem to you that there are other ways to be more secure against these things. It might even seem that being elite would leave you more exposed to such dangers.
For example, if you think that the main danger is unaligned AI, then you won’t think of elite status as a safe haven, so you’ll be less motivated to seek it. You’ll find that sense of security in doing something else that seems to address that danger better.
It seems unlikely that joining a specific elite is terminally valuable as such, except to ephemeral subagents that were built for instrumental reasons to pursue it.
It seems quite likely that people seek to join whatever elite they can as a means to some more fundamental ends. Those of us who aren’t driven to join the elite are probably satisfying our hunger to pursue those more fundamental ends in other ways.
For example, people might seek elite status in part to win security against bad fortune or against powerful enemies. But it might seem to you that there are other ways to be more secure against these things. It might even seem that being elite would leave you more exposed to such dangers.
For example, if you think that the main danger is unaligned AI, then you won’t think of elite status as a safe haven, so you’ll be less motivated to seek it. You’ll find that sense of security in doing something else that seems to address that danger better.