Jason Crawford

It did not stop doctors from way over-prescribing antibiotics in the early days.

So we need to get better at anticipating problems.

We also need to get better at heeding the warnings.

I think there is some evidence that we are starting to do that and that we can do that.

And especially within... So, I mean, the movement towards AI safety is a case in point.

Another similar phenomenon is the attention being paid to gene safety.

So multiple times in history of genetic engineering, people have sort of called for a bit of a halt, even a moratorium on experiments, and called for a conference to get together and talk about safety procedures.

And they were able to, through focused effort, anticipate what some of the risks might be, think about what different types of activities had different levels of risk, and come up with kind of appropriate practices, protocols, and techniques to contain risk.

And I think we can and should do, probably should do more of that with more technologies going forward.

I think narratives are very important.

I think they give people a vision for the future.

I think they help communicate ideas of the very idea of progress, the idea that we can make the future better, that improvements are possible and desirable.

They inspire people in particular ways.

you know, to go pursue particular types of innovations and they inspire people to, you know, just pursue innovation in general.

I mean, man, how many, you know, how many geeks got into science and technology through Star Trek?

Like an enormous number.

And many of them, you know, some of them specifically went into space technology, into aerospace because of, you know, they wanted to make Star Trek real.

So I think they're very important.

And one of the things that bothers me is how much it seems that in recent decades, sci-fi has taken a turn towards the dystopian and that people have gotten kind of more pessimistic, more negative, and that we don't have as many positive visions of the future as we used to.

Trends in those incentives.