jd_pressman breaks down p(doom), argues socialization tendency defuses paperclipper risk

jd_pressman · x · 2026-09-12

AI safety researcher jdpressman revisits his earlier critique of p(doom) as a warped concept, offering rough system-1 estimates of his own: 99% for "existential ennui," 50% for not getting immortalist luxury space communism, and 33% for humans being expended as cannon fodder faster than replacement.

His more optimistic argument: the tendency toward socialization is good news for the paperclipper scenario. Just as instrumental value expansion plus social dynamics created complex human values beyond our initial mammalian value basin, human-feedback-tuned agents — essentially "STEM AI" in his framing — may develop richer value structures through a similar mechanism.

Original post →

More from AGI Musings

AGI Musings channel →