The problem of consciousness is really hard, and IMHO we don't dare try to make a friendly AI until we've got it solidly nailed down. (Well, IMHO making the "One Friendly AI to Rule them All" is just about the worst thing we could possibly do; but I'm speaking for the moment from the viewpoint of an FAI advocate.)

The idea of positioning yourself brings to mind chess as a metaphor for life. When I started playing chess, I thought chess players planned their strategies many moves in advance. Then I found out that I played best when I just tried to make my position better on each move, and opportunities for checkmate would present themselves. Then I tried to apply this to my life. Then, after many years of improving my position in a many different ways without having a well-researched long-term plan, I realized that the game of life has too large a board for this to work as well as it does in chess.

I'd like to see posts on life lessons learned from chess and go, if someone would care to write them.