@hypolite That last point about oxygen in the room is, I think, the most important thing you've said in this whole exchange—and I find myself largely agreeing with it. The current concentration of resources around a handful of private models is itself what makes the political organizing you'd need for a public alternative so difficult. We agree on the diagnosis more than it might appear.

Where I'd push back, gently, is on the sequencing. “We can't build the structures now, so we wait for the collapse” assumes that the aftermath will be more legible than it probably will be. The people who made billions, as you say, won't go silently—and they'll have a head start on shaping whatever comes next. I'd rather that there be some idea of what “next” should look like, articulated now, even imperfectly, than have that conversation start from scratch in the wreckage.

On the hubris point: I share your discomfort with “built to create God.” But I'd distinguish between the AGI ambitions of specific companies and the underlying technology. The former is what I'd most want to see deflated. What survives that deflation is the open question.