Maybe instead of imagining your actions as having some probability of ‘making the difference,’ try thinking of them as slightly boosting the probability of a positive singularity?
At any rate, the survival of someone wheeled in through the doors of a hospital might depend on the EMTs, the nurses, the surgeons, the lab techs, the pharmacists, the janitors and so on and so on. I’d say they’re all entitled to take a little credit without being accused of having a savior complex!
um… can you please explain what the difference is, between “having some probability X of making the difference between success and failure, of achieving a positive Singularity” and “boosting the probability of a positive Singularity, by some amount Y”? To me, these two statements seem logically equivalent. Though I guess they focus on different details...
oh, I just noticed one obvious difference: X is not equal to Y
Yeah, what I wrote was intended as an alternative way of thinking about the situation that might make you feel better, rather than an accusation of wrongness.
I guess I’ll still need to think about this some more...
some random observations:
if X > 0, then Y > 0
if Y > 0, then X > 0
I was about to question whether maybe X = Y after all, but further thought reveals that X isn’t clearly defined, and I really would be better off focusing on Y, because Y is more clearly defined than X, and thinking about Y seems to trigger less panic than thinking about X.
So, yeah, thanks again for your comment. It was helpful. :)
Maybe instead of imagining your actions as having some probability of ‘making the difference,’ try thinking of them as slightly boosting the probability of a positive singularity?
At any rate, the survival of someone wheeled in through the doors of a hospital might depend on the EMTs, the nurses, the surgeons, the lab techs, the pharmacists, the janitors and so on and so on. I’d say they’re all entitled to take a little credit without being accused of having a savior complex!
um… can you please explain what the difference is, between “having some probability X of making the difference between success and failure, of achieving a positive Singularity” and “boosting the probability of a positive Singularity, by some amount Y”? To me, these two statements seem logically equivalent. Though I guess they focus on different details...
oh, I just noticed one obvious difference: X is not equal to Y
Yeah, what I wrote was intended as an alternative way of thinking about the situation that might make you feel better, rather than an accusation of wrongness.
I guess I’ll still need to think about this some more...
some random observations:
if X > 0, then Y > 0
if Y > 0, then X > 0
I was about to question whether maybe X = Y after all, but further thought reveals that X isn’t clearly defined, and I really would be better off focusing on Y, because Y is more clearly defined than X, and thinking about Y seems to trigger less panic than thinking about X.
So, yeah, thanks again for your comment. It was helpful. :)
No problem!