I was feeling anxious about short AI timelines, and this is how I fixed it

I was feeling anxious about short AI timelines, and this is how I fixed it

1. Replace anxiety with solemn duty + determination + hope
2. Practice the new emotional connection until it's automatic

Replace Anxiety With Your Target Emotion

You can replace anxiety with whatever emotions resonate with you.

I chose my particular combination because I cannot choose an emotional reaction that tries to trivialize the problem or make me look away.

Atrocities happen because good people look away.

I needed a set of emotions where I could continue looking at the problem and stay sane and happy without it distorting my views.

The key though is to pick something that resonates with you in particular

Practice The New Emotional Connection - Reps Reps Reps

In terms of getting reps on the emotion, you need to figure out your triggers, and then actually practice.

It's just like lifting weights at the gym. The number and intensity matters.

Intensity in this case is about how intense the emotions are. You can do a small number of very emotionally intense reps and that will be about as good as doing many more reps that have less emotional intensity.

The way to practice is to:

1. Think of a thing that usually makes you feel anxious.

Such as recent capability developments or thinking about timelines or whatever things usually trigger the feelings of panic or anxiety.

It's really important that you initially actually feel that fear again. You need to activate the neural wiring so that you can then re-wire it.

And then you replace it.

2. Feel the target emotion

In my case, that’s solemn duty + hope + determination, but use whichever you originally identified in step 1.

Trigger this emotion using:
a) posture (e.g. shoulders back)
b) music
c) dancing
d) thoughts (e.g. “my plan can work”)
e) visualizations (e.g. imagine your plan working, imagine what victory would look like)

Play around with it till you find something that works for you.

Then. Get. The. Reps. In.

This is not a theoretical practice.

It’s just a practice.

You cannot simply read this then feel better.

You have to put in the reps to get the results.

For me, it took about 5 hours of practice before it stuck.

Your mileage may vary. I’d say if you put 10 hours into it and it hasn’t worked yet, it probably just won’t work for you or you’re somehow doing it wrong, but either way, you should probably try something different instead.

And regardless: don’t take anxiety around AI safety as a given.

You can better help the world if you’re at your best.

Life is problem-solving. And anxiety is just another problem to solve.

You just need to keep trying things till you find the thing that sticks.

You can do it.

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