I think I’ve mentioned being raised by economists meant already growing up with a lot of rationalist/EA values–the biggest one that was missing was what I guess people call “taking ideas seriously.” I’m higher on this dimension than the rest of my family, which was enough to get me into EA in the first place, but I’m still lower than average for EA I think.
I was at a dinner party the other day with some (unrelated to me) academic economists. One brought up a recent study about CO2′s effects on cognition and said something about how in forty years atmospheric CO2 would be high enough that we’d start seeing noticeable effects. Another said “well, I guess by then maybe the robots will have taken over anyway.” The tone was like … kind of flippant but not really joking, and in response people like, nodded and shrugged.
It’s interesting to see ideas about AI risk getting more accepted among certain groups, and how they just don’t get taken seriously, but I guess taking ideas seriously is pretty rare.