Things Will Never Be Chill Again

Prefer to listen? Hear Nancy Tengler's commentary, “Things Will Never Be Chill Again,” on YouTube.

Motto of the Effective Altruists

I came to the realization that the world was a dangerous place as a grade schooler participating in duck-and-cover drills in the 1960s. Even then, I didn’t understand how hiding under my desk would protect against a Russian-launched nuclear bomb, but duck and cover we did, nonetheless. The drills pressed home the stark understanding the world contained enemies, even for a first grader in saddle shoes.

Fast-forward to 2026 and the rise of the Effective Altruists (EAs). You may recall that the most notorious member of the group, Sam Bankman-Fried, is serving a 25-year prison sentence. From my perch, this group of indulged whiz kids works for companies where they munch on catered vegan meals in offices with commanding views of the San Francisco skyline. Well, not all of them, but this is true of a core group who continue to work in AI, now deemed superintelligence, or SI, via not-for-profit organizations as well as Anthropic and OpenAI. This cohort discusses “buying remote islands, stockpiling iodine pills and moving magnetically shielded bunkers into the desert,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Then there are stickers adorning the laptops of EAs which say, "Things will never be chill again."  In the 1960s we held the same view (if we didn’t actually voice it) as we hid under our desks to avoid a faceless, evil enemy.  Our parents’ generation understood the concept as they battled face-to-face with the threat during WWII.

The threat was the same: potential annihilation.  The battlefield is different.  As Mark Twain was purported to say, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

Every new technology throughout history comes with increased risk and uncertainty.  The greater danger is not that innovation moves too fast, but that fear persuades us to slow the very progress capable of solving the problems we fear.

Why is this important? Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic was an early devotee of Effective Altruism and precursor movements, as was his sister, Daniela Amodei, president of Anthropic.  The “doomers” include most in the EA cohort along with Bill Gates. For the most part, these are the folks who would rather stop or slow innovation in favor of ... I am not sure what. Let’s follow the logic of Bill Gates, who recently bemoaned the risk of SI and “guessed” it could cost 1 billion lives. There were no supporting or substantive facts to back up that declaration and no clear evidence that Gates is an SI expert; his opinions mimic those of EA. If the technology is as dangerous as Gates claims, the argument should embrace U.S. dominance who has a proven track record of using new technologies for good or, at the very least, not evil.

 Palmer Luckey, founder of defense company Anduril, recently weighed in.  “I am kind of frustrated by a lot of people who are new to the dooming hobby…people who have not thought about this problem for more than a couple of years, or maybe even just for a couple months are saying, “Oh my God, this is the biggest threat to humanity…and so, yeah, AI doom is way down the list for me.”

As readers of our work know, we are excited about the potential revolutionary impact of SI, from developing new drugs and treatments to saving time and making the lives of seniors more civilized with driverless cars and robots. The doomer debate reminds me of claims that fracking would destroy the environment. Today, the U.S. is the largest producer of oil and a net exporter after decades of dependence on OPEC. All thanks to fracking.

Or consider the furor over nuclear power as portrayed in the 1979 movie, The China Syndrome, which preceded the meltdown at Three-Mile Island by 12 days. The timing increased the hysteria. I was sure I wanted to become a nuclear activist but realized I had no expertise and nothing relevant to say. Regardless, the true activists shut down the nuclear power movement, which meant we continued to rely on fossil fuels while those same activists bemoaned the climate damage from oil. In psychology, we call that the classic double bind. More than 45 years later, nuclear is back in vogue, perceived as a clean solution to our growing energy needs.

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has it right. U.S. companies and innovation will solve the safety problem. We always have and always will. Jobs were predicted to be destroyed by SI with Dario Amodei leading the parade, yet the job market is still expanding.  Again, we learn our economy is dynamic and flexible driven by unmatched innovation. In 1900, about 41% of American workers farmed. One hundred years later, fewer than 2% of the population farmed. The country pivoted.

The world may never be “chill” again. Perhaps it never was. But fear is not a strategy, and retreat is not progress. The better course is to keep innovating, keep competing and solve the problems that come with success.

Please see our previous comments on AI and the breadth of innovation we are already seeing.

For informational and educational purposes only. Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Important disclosures: https://laffertengler.com/disclosures.