I didn’t read this post as proposing an alliance with conservative politicians. The main point seemed to be that engaging with them by finding common ideological ground is just a good way to improve epistemics and spread true knowledge.
The political angle I endorse is that the AGI x-risk community is heavily partisan already, and that’s a very dangerous position to take. There are two separable reasons: remaining partisan will prevent us from communicating well with the conservatives soon to assume power (and who may well have power during a critical risk period for alignment); and it will increase polarization on the issue, turning it from a sensible discussion to a political football, just like the climate crisis has become.
Avoiding the mere mention of politics would seem to hurt the the odds that we think clearly enough about the real pragmatic issues arising from the current political situation. They matter, and we mustn’t ignore those dynamics, however much we dislike them.
I didn’t read this post as proposing an alliance with conservative politicians. The main point seemed to be that engaging with them by finding common ideological ground is just a good way to improve epistemics and spread true knowledge.
The political angle I endorse is that the AGI x-risk community is heavily partisan already, and that’s a very dangerous position to take. There are two separable reasons: remaining partisan will prevent us from communicating well with the conservatives soon to assume power (and who may well have power during a critical risk period for alignment); and it will increase polarization on the issue, turning it from a sensible discussion to a political football, just like the climate crisis has become.
Avoiding the mere mention of politics would seem to hurt the the odds that we think clearly enough about the real pragmatic issues arising from the current political situation. They matter, and we mustn’t ignore those dynamics, however much we dislike them.