Knowing that the world may change dramatically or even end in the very near term means that everything you do needs to be for its own sake. Don't despair and don't drop out but equally, don't waste any time on things you dislike and are doing based on some expected future utility.

Personally, I just find myself really feeling lucky to have my family and I'm determined to appreciate every day I have with them - which is what I should be doing anyway!

You can use this to live life as it’s meant to be lived… for each moment, for today, for there’s no guarantee of tomorrow. For how long have humans had ten-, twenty-, or even fifty-year plans? Not long.

I appreciate your point, though. For instance, I’m starting my career as a lawyer. I can’t help but to think that 10 years from now AGI will practically wipe out my practice area. However, I remind myself that: (1) For 20 years, I’ve been hearing that AGI will soon eliminate lawyers and (2) This is what I want to do for its own sake, for as long as I can; it’s not that it would only be worth doing if I could do it for the rest of my life (which would be more apt for an awful government job that someone starts solely so they can get a pension at the end).

If you find yourself absolutely convinced that the world will be unrecognizable in 1-5 years (and I don’t disagree), then count yourself lucky for seeing beyond this moment; don’t despair over what you, and everyone else, is losing—think about how you can take advantage of this moment. You can be better prepared than everyone else who doesn’t see what’s on the horizon.

Let it excite you; let it energize you; let it be an opportunity of which you’re in on the ground floor.

You said it yourself, just live your life and be thankful for every day.

There really isn't anything else to do.

If we survive we will maybe get something closer to an utopia if not.... better pray that AI has some mercy upon its creators.

I'm right there with you man. I thought the same thing about it feeling like a cancer diagnosis, but am wary of using it out of these types of sub reddits as I think it'll be a little crass as most people wouldn't equate the two in their mind yet.

I resent that it's happened so early in my life when I was just getting used to living within the current framework. This has absolutely plagued my mind the last two weeks. I can't even imagine where we'll be in 6 months. If I'm not doing an activity that I'm completely engrossed in then this stuff is always near the front of my thoughts.

I've had times in my life when I've been struck with intrusive thoughts, but the unique thing about these recent developments is that it's a constant despite feeling being broadly happy with my life. Before I used to get them in the midst of moderate to severe depression. I have a partner who loves me despite my flaws and a baby who is several months old who I love spending time with while he is learning and growing. To think I he will come of age in a totally different society or not at all if there's a rogue/dispassionate AGI is absolutely wrecking my head. Idk if we'll be afforded the time to solve the issue that come with AI as we have had with climate change/other existential threats to humanity/times of huge societal upheaval.

I think that's why it's hitting me much, that the structure we had in life could be radically altered in less than a decade and the way I thought I would grow older and raise my child is disappearing before my eyes. Despite social dynamics changing ( I probably would have been a way more distant father even 20 years ago) constantly there's been nothing for a while that has completely altered the basic framework of a human life like AI has the potential to. And that's a huge, constant mindfuck even if it could be to our betterment in some ways.

I aim to live my life to the point where I'm mainly in the moment and enjoying life with loved ones and pray that the people driving progress in these fields have the sense to slow things down a little. I seriously need a break from reading about this for like a decade lol. wake me up when the singularity/apocalypse happens.

You have to hedge a little bit though in terms of what to expect in the future. Not saying you shouldn't enjoy your life but at least put some of your money in some mid term investments/savings accounts and don't completely quit your job, or if you do try to find an income stream that allows you to dip in and out of it. We don't know how people across the world will react to more AI entrenchment and the disruption it will cause. As much as I think most people will end up like the people in Wall E, it's not enough of a sure thing to completely throw out any plans for the future, just most of them.

It is the same thing as youe life right now. You got only so many years. Who knows, maybe you will die to cancer or car accident in two years.

Our time is limited in any case.

So working towards traditional methods to enjoy life will work, such as therapy, religion, spiritualism, life wisdom, hanging out with friends, meditation, exercise, enjoying a good meal...whatever gets your serotonin going.

Our life is always at a stake.

This is the end of history illusion. I had it when I was eight, eighteen, and so on. I mean, witnessing the fall of communism, the birth of the Internet, and now AI is just shocking. In the long run, none of that matters. In a billion years, Earth will be uninhabitable. Billions of years later the Sun will die and the Andromeda galaxy will crash violently into the Milky Way. We are just tiny specks on a little sphere in the galaxy. At most we can produce ASI, and AFAIK it is not like ASI can get far...

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Everyone should try to Bend this Change to the Positive Direction

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I see this kind of sentiment expressed increasingly frequently in these spaces and equally just in general life, though people outside of the AI world tend to just put it down to a more general feeling that change is coming.

I think it's wrong to dismiss this as "JuSt LiVe 4 ToDayz!" Particularly annoying if it's followed by "you could die tomorrow." I'm genuinely not trying to be a dick but ask yourself, is that advice really useful in any way? Are you applying it to your own life? Do people really live for today and love life at their 9-5, day in day out? I don't think so. Our societies have been forward thinking since the advent of farming, modern life is this on steroids, resource hoarding is the name of the game.

We can't go around telling young people who wonder what they will do in life "just live for today" that's not going to help them choose an educational path or understand what they want out of life. Personally I see this question and the attempt to answer it as a fundamental part of surviving "the singularity" as a society.

Pardon the bad metaphor but things feel pointless because we are building a house that we know will collapse. And we're not all building this house because "I just love the day to day!" No it's because we have to work to get money in order to live, working to perpetrate a system that we know is no longer fit for the future. Of course that scenario is going to cause angst, it's fundamentally insane.

I think you, as many people in this kind of subreddits, are over reacting. I like all AI and tech discussion, but I am pretty sure in 5, and even in 20 actually, years our lives will not be so much different than now. My life 20 years ago (pre-smartphone, as an example) was not very different than now. Ok, next developments will be bigger, but still I think that most jobs will remain. Probably using AI we will work less hours, 4 days per weeks, and so on.. but we will carry living similarly as today. Don't quit your job, keep going, you'll be fine.

OP I bet you’ve made some very life altering assumptions. Go back over the things you are worried about and instead of just buying into the fear, examine your beliefs and make an effort to build knowledge in areas where those assumptions are made. For example, there’s no logical reason to believe that an AGI will go rogue and want to destroy humans; a commonly held belief on here. Just because a bunch of people are worried about it, doesn’t mean they know jack shit.

That’s because you are young, prob’ly have a US-centric viewpoint, & perhaps ignored history class. This transition is tiny compared to growing up in the Great Depression, or in France before the French Revolution, or in Russia (at any time), or in many African countries, or in …

Don’t despair so much. Change is normal, so find a way to go with the flow, untethered from thinking that the past is how it should always be. And stop paying so much attention to social media & AGI guesswork; that’s not the world, for 90% of people on Earth.