[rubidium]

WHEW! Sama's worldview is so technocractic it's rather disturbing.

The world is _actually_ shaped by mothers and fathers. Teachers and physical therapists. Doctors and pastors. Friends and romantic partners.

...

I hesitate to write the following because I'm not going to express everything how I actually think. But it should add to the discussion...

Here's an interesting spin on it. I'll give my "real" answers and my technocentric answers. Both could be said by accurately. But my worldview aligns much more with the former.

#Honest answers

>What are you interested in and what are you working on?

I'm interested in creating a world where everyone has a human network of mutual support and care. I'm genuinely concerned that the technocentrist worldview that seems to consume a generation of our brightest minds will miss the human element of life and lead society in a worse direction. I am building neighborhood-level community with the lower middle class and poor.

>What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

I work with what I have, to best of my abilities, to love and serve others. I'm often selfish and mess up. I try to correct my mistakes and hope to get better.

>In a best-case scenario, what do you want your obituary to say?

Loving husband and father, caring neighbor, and example of a life of service.

#Technocentric answers:

>> What are you interested in and what are you working on?

I'm building better automation in the tech stack for life science research to accelerate the discovery and delivery of medical care for the sick and dying.

>>What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

4.0's, valedictorian, PhD, publish in fancy journals, design and deliver millions of dollars of research systems to all the major pharmaceuticals, ya ya yah...

>> What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

Discovered a tailored medical care approach to eliminate deaths caused by cancer. Loving husband and father, caring neighbor, and example of a life of service.

[caljones1618]

Agreed. It's easy to assume that technology is good for society when it's fun to build it, ship it, and backwards-justify what you've done. Are we sure that AGI will be good for society? If not, why should we try and push to develop it as fast as possible?

[avmich]

I once saw a presentation from Machine Intelligence Research Institute. The presentation listed global dangers to civilization, including AI. Then it was mentioned that, done right, AI could actually solve at least some other problems. That was justification for MIRI efforts.

[caljones1618]

Agreed that AI could have large positive or negative effects on society and I think the kind of work that MIRI does is incredibly important. I wish that this application took MIRI's outcome-driven approach rather than being tech for tech's sake.

[sudosteph]

Personally, I'd prefer a dinner with real you over techno-centric you any day.

Though I do wonder if YC at this point could even select for authenticity, empathy, and genuine pro-social goodness if they even tried. We all know that you need to keep your audience in mind when writing. How many applicants sincerely view the YC audience they would be writing here for as anything other than mega-capitalists with a fetish for "disruption"? (I know I'm being unkind to some decent people who work there, but this stereotype isn't too far off base).

A system that only filters on "who is most likely to be able to disrupt industries and seize income for themselves and investors" will never be able to differentiate between good and bad people. At best, the bad ones will only be selfish, at worst, they will abuse their power and make the world a worse place because it is profitable to them.

I agree with your concerns completely on the issues with technocracy. I'm going to focus on making my own community stronger and building out my networks with people that would have been missed by the VC meat grinder. I may still fail at fixing big problems like I want - but at least my conscience will be clean knowing I wasn't complicit in making things worse.

[erbium]

Something is fundamentally dishonest about the way Sam Altman recruits people. Something that PG never had problems with