The “most important century” series of blog posts argues that the 21st century could be the most important century ever for humanity, via the development of advanced AI systems that could dramatically speed up scientific and technological advancement, getting us more quickly than most people imagine to a deeply unfamiliar future.

• The long-run future is radically unfamiliar. Enough advances in technology could lead to a long-lasting, galaxy-wide civilization that could be a radical utopia, dystopia, or anything in between.
• The long-run future could come much faster than we think, due to a possible AI-driven productivity explosion.
• The relevant kind of AI looks like it will be developed this century – making this century the one that will initiate, and have the opportunity to shape, a future galaxy-wide civilization.
• These claims seem too “wild” to take seriously. But there are a lot of reasons to think that we live in a wild time, and should be ready for anything.
• We, the people living in this century, have the chance to have a huge impact on huge numbers of people to come – if we can make sense of the situation enough to find helpful actions. But right now we aren’t ready for this.

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