This post is a compiled snippet from a Bluesky thread that I've transported over here for posterity. The original thread started here:
https://bsky.app/profile/b-cavello.bsky.social/post/3mvdizh2ckk2r

This is a good point, but I actually think it would be good to discuss what the difference is. I think that there are some technologies, the existence of which is actually dangerous, in part because of how people can and likely will use it irresponsibly.

I think that many of us are aligned in being concerned about the harms and have tried to intervene before things got to such a point. Others felt that such a point was unavoidable (I disagree, but believe they were earnest in that belief).

There are genuinely some cats that are hard to put back in the bag without taking extraordinary actions. A lot of folks who’ve stressed about X risk have some problematic base assumptions about inevitability that have made them complicit in where we are, imo.

But I think many meant it.

And that is, in many ways, I think harder to reckon with: That there are many people who are in many ways aligned but still so fundamentally out of step with one-another.

I see this shifting a bit with efforts like the pro-human AI coalition, but I think it’s really tricky to contend with.

I’m disheartened with the fundamentally anti-democratic approach that many AI safety people have adopted. I think we must continue to push back on the idea that anyone is worthy of being a king, philosopher or otherwise.

I also think it is worth trying to “steel man” the concerns about misaligned systems escaping containment. Indeed, I think that many systems that perpetuate modern capitalism are examples of these misaligned systems. Rather than dismissing the possibility, how do we reckon with them?

How do we respond to the system that is the fossil fuel economy, for instance, as this powerful, world-altering thing that it is, without resorting to authoritarian interventions? I think what applies in that case may also carry answers that X risk people could champion.

I share frustrations about where people’s attention is focused. I share the frustration that people who lie over and over and over keep being treated as credible. I share the frustration that so many resources are commanded by people who seem not to care about so much of humanity.

There may be some kinds of technologies, or perhaps we should just say “systems” or “memes,” that really do seem to self-perpetuate & that are bigger than any individual & are hard to steer or constrain, & responding appropriately requires not dismissal but addressing what allows them to propagate.