“What, if not agency?” by abramdemski

Sahil has been up to things. Unfortunately, I've seen people put effort into trying to understand and still bounce off. I recently talked to someone who tried to understand Sahil's project(s) several times and still failed. They asked me for my take, and they thought my explanation was far easier to understand (even if they still disagreed with it in the end). I find Sahil's thinking to be important (even if I don't agree with all of it either), so I thought I would attempt to write an explainer.

This will really be somewhere between my thinking and Sahil's thinking; as such, the result might not be endorsed by anyone. I've had Sahil look over it, at least.

Sahil envisions a time in the near future which I'll call the autostructure period.[1] Sahil's ideas on what this period looks like are extensive; I will focus on a few key [...]

---

Outline:

(01:13) High-Actuation

(04:05) Agents vs Co-Agents

(07:13) Whats Coming

(10:39) What does Sahil want to do about it?

(13:47) Distributed Care

(15:32) Indifference Risks

(18:00) Agency is Complex

(22:10) Conclusion

(23:01) Where to begin?

The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
September 15th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tQ9vWm4b57HFqbaRj/what-if-not-agency

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.