Open thread, June 5 - June 11, 2017

Elo

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, then it goes here.

Notes for future OT posters:

1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.

2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)

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I am considering ending my life because of fears related to AI risk. I am posting here because I want other people to review my reasoning process and help ensure I make the right decision.

First, this is not an emergency situation. I do not currently intend to commit suicide, nor have I made any plan for doing so. No matter what I decide, I will wait several years to be sure of my preference. I am not at all an impulsive person, and I know that ASI is very unlikely to be invented in less than a few decades.

I am not sure if it would be appropriate to talk about this here, and I prefer private conversations anyway, so the purpose of this post is to find people willing to talk with me through PMs. To summarize my issue: I only desire to live because of the possibility of utopia, but I have recently realized that ASI-provided immortal life is significantly likely to be bad rather than good. If you are very familiar with the topics of AI risk, mind uploading, and utilitarianism, please consider sending me a message with a brief explanation of your beliefs and your intent to help me. I especially urge you to contact me if you already have similar fears of AI, even if you are a lurker and are not sure if you should. Because of the sensitive nature of this topic, I may not respond unless you provide an appropriately genuine introduction and/or have a legitimate posting history.

Please do not reply/PM if you just want to tell me to call a suicide prevention hotline, tell me the standard objections to suicide, or give me depression treatment advice. I might take a long time to respond to PMs, especially if several people end up contacting me. If nobody contacts me I will repost this in the next discussion thread or on another website.

Edit: The word limit on LW messages is problematic, so please email me at sad_dolphin@protonmail.com instead.

If ASI-provided immortal life were possible, you would already be living it.

... because if you're somewhere in an infinite sequence, you're more likely to be in the middle than at the beginning.

0MrMind9y

As an aside, against the most horrific version of UFAI, even suicide won't avoid dystopia. Heh.

16Viliam9y

WTF is this? Please take a step back, and look at what you did here. Your literally first words on this website are about suicide. Then you say no suicide, and then you explain in detail how people are not supposed to talk about your possible suicide. Half of your total contribution on this website is about your suicide-not-suicide. Thanks; now everyone can understand they are not supposed to think about the pink elephant in the room. So... why have you mentioned it, in the first place? Three times in a row, using a bold font once, just to be sure. Seems like you actually want people to think about your possible suicide, but also to feel guilty if they mention it. Because the same comment, without this mind game, could be written like this: [...] Much less drama, right? Next, you provide zero information about yourself. You are a stranger here, and you use anonymized e-mail. And I guess we will not learn more about you here, because you prefer private conversations anyway. However, you "urge" people to contact you, and provide an "appropriately genuine introduction", a brief explanation of their beliefs, and their intent to help you. But they are not supposed to mention your suicide-not-suicide, right? But they are supposed to want to help you. But they are not allowed to suggest seeking expert help. And they are supposed to tell you things about themselves, without knowing anything about you. And this all is supposed to happen off-site, without any observers, inter alie because the word limit on LW messages is problematic. Right. How weird no one else has realized yet how much this problematic word limit prevents us from debating AI-related topics here. More red flags than in China on Mao's birthday. I don't think you are in a risk of suicide. Instead, I think that people who would contact you are in serious risk of being emotionally exploited (and reminded of your suicide-not-suicide, and their intent to help). Something like: "I told you that I am ready to