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patrissimo comments on The danger of living a story - Singularity Tropes - Less Wrong
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Given the breadth of TVTropes, you could make a description like that about almost any group or any idea, independent of the truth of the idea. The love for narrative cut both ways. It might make people think they're living in a story, but it's story like element we are most prone to pick out of others people's live too.
Nobody talks about what Eliezer had for breakfast because that's not part of "the story we tell". But telling a story is just another (edit:) way to say "picking out relevant details".
Can we please get back to substantive arguments against the scary idea?
First, I'm not claiming a connection between truth and tropism, but this idea that everything is equally tropish seems wrong. Not everyone has the role of a protagonist fighting for humanity against a great inhuman evil that only they foresee, and struggling to gather allies and resources before time runs out. Yet Eliezer has that role.
Second, even though tropes apply to everyone's lives to some degree, it matters which tropes they are. For example, someone who sees themselves as a fundamentally misunderstood genius who deserves much more than society has given them is also living a trope - but it's a very different trope with very different results. Identifying the tropes you are living is useful - it helps in your personal branding, can teach you lessons about strategies for achieving your goal, and may show you pitfalls.
For example, I live a very similar trope set to Eliezer, which is why I notice it, and it poses many challenges in being effective, because it's tempting to (as Nick alluded to above) play the role rather than doing the work.
No. The UFAI is nonexistent, and therefore noncombatant. I'm not sure Eliezer has even tried to make the case that UFAI is the most likely existential risk. Lots of people see serious huge risks in our future. To say nothing of the near-constant state of death. EY certainly wasn't first with the concept of world-killing UFAI in general, arguably he's late to the game.
I can't think of a story in which the protagonist spend lots of time trying to do things the majority doesn't want to try or don't think are hard, but it sounds like a comedy.