Feelings about the end of the world

# Feelings about the end of the world
By Michelle_Hutchinson
Published: 2026-03-07
Many of us in this community are in the shocking position of thinking there’s a real chance of humanity being wiped out over the next decade or two. Most of the time, we discuss that in rational terms. We talk about probabilities, and threat models, and interventions. We don’t talk as much about the emotions we have about how radically our world might change and about the possibility of it ending entirely. 

There are lots of reasons for not talking about those feelings. For starters, it’s often hard to know how we even do feel about it. There isn’t a straightforward societal script for how to feel about such radical world changes. People each have to figure it out for themselves, and feel very different ways. No one wants to sound extreme or crazy by talking about feeling very strongly about it. But they don’t want to sound callous either. And opening up about your feelings and being met without understanding and similarity feels alienating, particularly when it’s about something so important. But the biggest reason I don’t talk about it is horror. I don’t want to think about it, and I don’t want to upset others. 

Until recently, I hadn’t thought about this lack of discussion as harmful. But someone recently highlighted to me how unnatural it can feel. It’s an unimaginably enormous thing to to come to terms with, and that’s all the harder if you feel alone in your emotional processing. Our community is also unusually keen to ensure they’re doing right by the world, so I think we’re unusually likely to worry about having the ‘wrong’ emotional reaction to things. I’m hoping that by describing a range of reactions I’ve come across, including my own, people can get a better sense of there being a significant range of both type and strength of emotions. Hopefully whatever your reaction to the world is, you can feel less alone in this struggle. 

### A range of feelings

Here are some of the ways I’ve experienced people responding to fast AI timelines and uncertainty of survival: 

*   For one of my friends, it only really clicked when they talked to someone in a similar family situation about risk from AI. Seeing someone they related strongly to have a strong reaction brought things home to them in a way that talking to others hadn’t.
*   For another person, an increase in the speed of AI progress compared to their expectations caused a couple of months of low mood and depression, as they came to terms with a different, more dangerous world
*   One of my friends used the analogy of walking over an incredibly high glass bridge. Much of the time, he’s looking ahead and everything is normal. But sometimes he look down and the vertigo is overwhelming. He has a naturally high hedonic set point, so it doesn’t feel harrowing so much as incredibly disorienting and stressful.
*   For another, the feeling is more clearly negative and occasionally brings bouts of tears when he r

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