Or like worrying about global warming back when it would have been easier to prevent?
Ng's statement is, at best, equivalent to a student who is putting off starting their semester project until finals week. Yes it seems far away, but the future is going to happen.
I don't know. I mean, we don't seem to even be close to actually beginning to colonize Mars, much less be close to the point of overpopulation. I think Ng's statement, formed in an analogy similar to yours, would be closer to
"a freshman student who is putting off studying for his Senior final project until his Senior year".
The question Ng asked was something like "is there any practical action we can take today, to address over-population on mars" as an analogy to "is there any practical step we can take today to address the danger of a super-AGI". And honestly, I'm not convinced there is anything practical to do about super-AGI today. Well, nothing besides pursuing the "open AI" strategy.
But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise if somebody has a good argument.
Ng's statement is, at best, equivalent to a student who is putting off starting their semester project until finals week. Yes it seems far away, but the future is going to happen.