The Whiplash Between AI's Builders and Its Critics Is Structural

The engineer's post did not go viral ^[5]. That is precisely the data point worth examining. A clear-eyed account of the gap between productive AI work and catastrophist social feeds — from someone who shares concerns about AI's risks — found almost no audience. The observation was accurate and undistributable. The platforms do not reward accuracy; they reward legibility. A clean moral position, whether alarm or enthusiasm, is legible. The experience of holding both is not.