Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · May 31

This is the title of what is meant to be an inspiring post by Boaz Barak, one of the more thoughtful, smart people in that space (the post itself is thankfully more nuanced). I can't understand how one can think this'll go well. "We truly believe we're building a cataclysm machine. Try not to die!"

34 likes 5 replies

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Replies

int_ijk · May 31

eh, happens all the time. silly man mistakes capitalism for something biological. monkey money isn't a pipe (laughter shared with rené magritte). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinct...

Lana Sinapayen · Jun 1

My interpretation of that kind of framing is that they think you'll be happy to be invited to the bunker to look at other people suffer, because even 'good' people enjoy believing they're at the top of social hierarchies and so they think their friends do to.

Thomas Ahle · May 31

The charitable reading is "the industrial revolution was a net good, but some people lost a lot, e.g. tailors. Don't be the tailor of the next revolution." But this could go a lot harder than the industrial revolution...

Clément Canonne · May 31

Boaz is incredibly smart! Many are! Do they not realize that "I'm happily building a thing I genuinely believe can be compared to a planetary-scale catastrophe,* I suggest you make peace with it" is NOT great PR? (*Regardless of whether you/I believe it) windowsontheory.org/2026/05/30/a...

Suresh Venkatasubramanian · May 31

You're right on both counts. the post itself is quite reasonable, but the headline is ... oh dear. It's the same as Tegmark's infamous TIME oped a few years ago that referenced Don't Look Up