Why I’m not nice or cool with the enemies of humanity
People who diss small talk ignore its power at their peril. Pleasantries establish what’s real between you.
No matter what you say to someone in the heat of conversation, if you say, “Hi, how are you?” the next day, the baseline is still conversational. That’s what’s real. The conversation is a game, confined between bookends of “Happy Easter” and “Say hi to the kids”— what’s real is the social reality you escape to.
This is why I am not pleasant with my enemies. I do not wish them harm. (I’m actually trying to save their lives.) I am reasonable with them. But my disagreements with them are real life. The most important thing is NOT that we’re all friends at the end of the day, and I will not make a social reality where we can shake hands at the end of a rousing debate when the actual reality is they’re plotting to coup the world with a machine that may coup them.
When you won’t give pleasantries, people are desperate to secure them. They’ll try to make you laugh. Try to bring you into a secret. They want you to wink back. Any little sign that says “this is just talk— really we’re cool”. Some people go insane without this reassurance. But my reality is all the lives they are putting in danger. Let them squirm in my disapproval. I’m not helping them hide from their evil.
I am showing my enemies more love by holding them accountable than I would by reassuring them we’re cool. They put themselves in danger too, but even if they could pull off their schemes without blowing themselves up, it’s not kind to their souls to allow them to be evil conquerers.
Give no quarter in the truth; give no “wink, it’s cool” to villains.
It's been a hard lesson to learn that not everyone is on the same side. Down at the bottom of the stack, I have more in common with my worst political enemies domestically and abroad then any of us will ever have in common with the likes of Richard Sutton or Nick Bostram.
Some AGI company employees at least approximately share my values, but are being very foolish and naive in the way they are choosing to operationalize them. This is where my empathy and sympathy diverge.
I think this is the correct stance in an important sense, but sometimes from a purely impartial POV things that superficially look like “wink, it’s cool” are substantively good strategic maneuvers, and you don’t want to count those out ex ante
I’m not sure exactly how this maps on to Pause AI, but the first thing that comes to mind are signals of good faith
Even if you rightly and justly despise your negotiation partner, if they have some power and you have some power, you might find yourself in negotiations with them and it can be good by your own lights to signal that you’re not going to renege or stab them in the back or use your negotiation to try to hurt them in ways that are necessary to defend against (and thereby harm you as well)