AI safety researcher floguo reflects: vague ideals of 'human flourishing' need firmer foundations
floguo · x · 2026-09-29
Prominent AI safety researcher floguo published a long reflection on her early fixation with vague ideals of "human flourishing": desiring the good without solid ideological foundations is well-intentioned but ill-planned.
Key threads:
- Humans crave story — heroes, villains, shared experiences; we first perceive, then craft narratives to make sense of the world
- We form consistent world models and act on top of them with discernment and principle
- The post ends on a personal, spiritual note: souls craving love and peace, and reconciling brokenness with being loved "not only because, but also despite"
The piece marks a turn from grand AI-ethics vocabulary toward questions of belief systems and foundations for value alignment.
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