Chris Williamson

so many of the traits that we look for in other people, that creates a strange weightlessness with all of the different values that we've tended to prefer for all of human history because we've been negotiating with a world that's pushed up against us.

And if we move that out of the way, then what does that mean?

So yeah, I think the meaninglessness thing is great.

George is...

infuriatingly optimistic, which means that these conversations with him are always, if AI is that smart, why won't it be benevolent enough to fix our problems?

A service that's entirely done in a language that nobody in the audience speaks.

And I wonder whether what that's doing is it's almost bypassing people's ability to scrutinize it.

Well, that's obviously not true.

That's why I think that what they're doing is they're purposefully going, oh, maybe it's just that it feels more archaic.

It's more steeped in history, et cetera, et cetera.

Maybe the music's better.

I don't know.

But yeah, I definitely get the sense that people are going to scrabble around to try and reverse from first principles.

How do I make myself feel good?

But there is an interesting question, which is if what we're bothered about is human flourishing, humans feeling good.

why not have a comforting delusion?

Let's say that it's delusion.

I'm not saying that it is, but why not have a comforting delusion?

Like if the outcomes of religious people are more happiness, more meaning, they live longer, they've got better community, they've got better health, they've got da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

So this was what I learned from Alex O'Connor.