Katalin Balog

The battles fought by our forbears Our memory will dissolve into peace To set our common house in order This is our task - and it will not come with ease. - Attila József, "By the Danube" (final stanza, trans. K.B.) I have arrived in my hometown, Budapest, just before the election that delivered a decisive blow to Fidesz, Viktor Orbán's party.

It might seem that the idea that one should remain indifferent to success is for losers. Yes, it is my own professional and personal setbacks that all of a sudden so sharpened my insights into the downsides of success. But actually, I am not new to this idea. I am not a virtuoso of failure and decay like Emil Cioran, but I come from a part of the world, East-Central Europe, where there is a venerable tradition of looking with suspicion at the ambition to succeed, to be a winner at life.

In a recent bestseller, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares argue that artificial superintelligence (ASI), if it is ever built, will wipe out humanity. Unsurprisingly, this idea has gotten a lot of attention. People want to know if humanity has finally gotten around to producing an accurate prophecy of impending doom. The argument is based on an ASI that pursues its goals without limit-no satiation, no rest, no stepping back to ask what for? It seems like a creature out of an ancient myth.