A letter from the future
Today at the Minimal AI Safety Unconference (MAISU), I led a workshop where we took the role of one of our descendants 200 years from now and wrote a letter back through time to ourselves. As this exercise touched me to tears, I would like to share my letter with you - and invite you to write one for yourself!
Hey Sev.
When I look at the world around me, I feel immense gratitude for the work all of you have done. History is by no means "done", and I'm not so sure it ever will be. But through your efforts, humanity managed to thread the needle of building more and more capable narrow AI without yet making the jump to superintelligence. It's incredible what you and your friends accomplished: You managed to find the fine line right before superintelligence and managed to bring the international treaties under way that allowed us to stop right there.
These systems helped us fix climate change, reduced poverty to something almost nonexistent, and brought about a golden age in just about any area of science, engineering, and art.
I imagine you must have been full of hopes at some times, full of despair at others, and on yet other days, you must have doubted your sanity and wondered whether all of this is just a wild delusion.
So let me tell you: The work you do matters. In my past and your future, it will have made all the difference. Thanks for helping the world I live in now into existence. Thanks for never giving up for too long and for making all this possible.
Godspeed,
Your great-great-great-great-grandchild Sev the 7th. Writing from the dorms of Mars university.