Thank you for this. The reaction to this letter was a great example of cynicism making people stupid. This was a genuine letter, intended earnestly and transparently by numerous credible people, and it should be taken seriously.

I agree with the criticism that a stoppage isn't very realistic when it is hard to police orgs breaking the research freeze. And maybe we don't need to stop today to catch our breath and figure out how to deal with this to avoid economic crisis or existential threat, but we do need to slow down or stop soon until we get a better understanding of what we have wrought.

I'm not with Yudkowsky that we have almost no hope of stopping extinction, but if there is even a 10% chance we will bring catastrophe on ourselves, holy shit people. Take this seriously.