The resulting policy gap limits effective long-term decision-making
Genuinely, think there’s a huge pile of subprime risk accumulating for policymakers who don’t accept this and don’t act accordingly
Setting aside tedious debates about what exactly is going to happen, *voters* buy into the sci-fi narrative about how this is going to evolve.
Politicians and DC staffers have a strong aversion to sounding weird - but here they’ll have to learn to change their register.
Many users agree politicians should embrace sci-fi thinking on AI policy because it could spark real engagement and aligns with observations from public interviews.
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@davidshor My ‘AI in government’ pitch is fire transit workers and hire transit cops.
@davidshor Hmm, do you have any data to share?
A year ago, only 35% of Americans thought AI should play a big role in weather forecasting and only 44% thought it would have a positive impact on medical care.
https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society/ps_2024-9-15_ai-and-its-impact_00-04/ https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2026-ai-index-report/public-opinion
@davidshor David you should watch my YouTube, I’m interviewing people across the country and you are totally on point
@davidshor
@davidshor Voters may say they expect sci-fi stuff to happen, but I'm not sure they've really internalized that belief. Maybe sci-fi expectations will start driving voting/media/consumer behavior more dramatically in the near future?
@davidshor But, as always, the change will come from outside the world of politics. Politicians and staffers will eventually catch up.
@davidshor Is there any polling you can share on voter’s beliefs?
@davidshor Well there isn't really a clear theory of what society looks like as this ball is rolling so the default reaction is "uhhhh, maybe we should slow this train down".
@davidshor @AlexanderMcCoy4 Overton window of normies believing wild stuff is expanding faster than Dave's Hot Chicken franchises
@davidshor https://youtube.com/@charlieguthmann2531?si=MFwRAGE9ZsPRu0Gz
@davidshor Are you extrapolating voters' buying into sci-fi language based on the unpopular polling for AI data centers?
@davidshor Thanks, Terminator
@FleekFuturist @davidshor Good question, but I think survey data is mostly not going to get at this question. Data on what college students choose to major in might be one good indicator?
@ultima_shifl @davidshor I’ve internalized that belief 🙋🏻♂️ but how widespread are such attitudes?
I’m interested in what kind of survey questions or experiments would quantify the growth of “sci-fi is real” thinking
Any ideas?
@davidshor totally, embracing the weird could spark real engagement.
