If AI Replaces Human Labor Does That Have To Strip Human Lives Of Meaning?

November 16, 2025

A common worry is that technological development, and increasingly advanced AI in particular, will necessarily remove meaning from our lives. For instance, if humanity ends up in a situation of extreme material abundance, but at some point there is a lack of ability for most (or all) people to do work that's value-additive, will that lead to widespread depression and lack of meaning? While I think there are very serious concerns that advancing technologies, and AI in particular, raise (such ...

What level of societal risk is too much to dismiss?

August 1, 2017

Suppose that if we humans keep doing an activity, then we'll have at least a P percent chance of causing the most horrible series of events so far in human history within 50 years. How big does P need to be before it's irresponsible to say, "Well, the horrible event is unlikely to happen, so let's not worry about it"? 50% (1 in 2)?5% (1 in 20)?1% (1 in 100)?0.1% (1 in 1,000)?0.01%? (1 in 10,000)?0.001%? (1 in 100,000)?0.0001%? (1 in 1,000,000)? To me, it seems bizarre to dismiss a thre...