Thread by @nickcammarata

We should work on safely harnessing hypomania

Rockets are dangerous but good technical safety work can reduce the risk substantially, and risk doesn’t mean humanity should avoid rockets altogether

Humanity owes much of its biggest breakthroughs to that special state. The large majority of cases in history were safe, but the fraction that weren’t gave the qualia a bad reputation

But the future can look very different from the past. We can be both ambitious and safe

The flip side is we should take seriously that we can make a vaccine for depression. I think it’s possible if we use the tools that work best eg directly activating reward system, psychedelics + technical work to improve their safety. We shouldn’t put up with less

On both fronts there are too many defeatist policy and “bioethics” discussions on risk reward trade-offs and not enough people devoting their lives to deep technical work to change what the risk reward trade-offs actually are. We should aim higher

I think the people involved who aren’t currently severely depressed must not have empathy for how bad it is. I don’t see how someone could acknowledge the weight of it and argue against going all-in on the most promising tools to solve the problem as soon as possible

similarly, I don’t think they understand how good life can be every day for years. The technical gap between a terrible world and one filled with magic and delight is so small. I don’t have another explanation other than they haven’t actually felt these things

but more importantly than how much they feel like you deserve to feel good is whether it’s their choice at all. Your reward system as much a part of your body as your liver or shoulder, and your body is yours

There is nothing that matters more than this, and it hurts me when I think of the current state of affairs. Some people live vastly better lives today just due to genetics and luck. Life deserves to enjoy it if it wants