Last night I finished reading “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. A theme of the book is that a sense of meaninglessness is often a driver of depression, and that it is up to each of us to find our unique meaning of life in order to become fulfilled. He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz…
This seems related to why AI/Superintelligence has made me so depressed in recent days. After reading the Aschenbrenner summary, I feel as if all "why's" are becoming irrelevant. I have all these projects, all these creative ambitions, but they seem silly if AI will be running/managing/curating/doing-everything for us in the future. And concerning 'anticipatory anxiety', the past year in AI makes me feel like the fut…
Personally I'm quite excited about AI. I know that much of the work I do now/know will probably be automated after a few years, but there's always meta stuff that needs human agency and I believe that will never cease to be the case.
The meaning of life? Try to keep others as well as yourself happy, content, excited,... it really can be a goal on itself without higher meaning. For example, try to learn and to teach, you will get much appreciation in return.