Rudolf Laine [verified] @LRudL_ · 1h
Great overview of ideas close to my own heart
One axis I find helpful: Mill v Bentham. The field is Benthamite, but we need Mill's love of freedom and agency
Also Dostoevsky's inquisitor parable is one of the most philosophically dense and utterly Western pieces ever written
[quoted post]
Ruxandra Teslo [DNA helix emoji] [verified] @RuxandraTeslo · 4h
"Why are people not happier about A.I.? It might cure cancer" is a very one-dimensional view of human beings. It assumes that humans want only material comfort, disregarding their fears around loss of agency and purpose....
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
X post by Rudolf Laine (@LRudL_) praising an overview of ideas on AI and human agency, framing it as Mill versus Bentham (the field is Benthamite but needs Mill's love of freedom and agency) and citing Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor parable. Quotes Ruxandra Teslo on why 'it might cure cancer' is a one-dimensional view of what humans want; quote truncated.
millbenthamdostoevskygrand inquisitorhuman agencyai attitudesutilitarianism
carl feynman @carl_feynman · Jan 23
Talking about the AI industry: "The characters have various intentions—good, bad, mixed, confused—but the outcomes seem almost independent of them. The catastrophe happens not because anyone intended it but because the system had that catastrophe as its attractor."
> QUOTED: Tim Hwang @timhwang · Jan 23
> Important essay dropping today on Dostoevsky's "Demons" and what's happening in AI safety and policy
>
> possessedmachines.com
> [Link preview image: "The Possessed Machines — Dostoevsky's Demons and the Coming AGI Catastrophe — A close reading of prophetic fiction in the age of artificial superintelligence." Table of contents: Prologue, I. Topology of Madness, II. Architecture of Catastrophe, III. The Shigalyovist Turn, III-A. The Uniparty, IV. Sociology of Catastrophe, Interlude, V. Hermeneutics of Apocalypse, VI. Political Economy, VII. Our Condition, Epilogue. Quotes shown: "All my life I have been a liar. Even my truths were untrue—for I never once spoke for truth, only ever for myself." — Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky, Demons. "The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." — Eliezer Yudkowsky, Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A tweet promoting/summarizing an essay ("The Possessed Machines") drawing a systemic-attractor analogy between Dostoevsky's "Demons" and structural dynamics that could drive an AI catastrophe independent of individual actors' intentions. Relevant to Nathan's interest in AI risk literature, systemic/structural framings of catastrophe, and literary/philosophical treatments of AI safety.
ai safetyagi riskdostoevskyliterary criticismessaytwitteryudkowsky
