“The human race’s prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenseless against tigers than they are today, when we have become defenseless against ourselves.”
- Arnold Toynbee
Head over to my podcast page and check out my recent podcast episode where I discuss and share some of my thoughts on Chapters 3 and 4 (Natural Risks & Anthropogenic Risks) of Australian philosopher Toby Ord's The Precipice! Hope you enjoy :)
I'm planning on making a podcast episode for each chapter of the book so make sure to keep an eye out for the next episode on Chapter 5!
Resources for further exploration:
The universe is unbelievably big – trillions of stars and even more planets. Soo… there just has to be life out there, right? But where is it? Why don’t we see any aliens? Where are they? And more importantly, what does this tell us about our own fate in this gigantic and scary universe?
Scientific and technological progress might change people’s capabilities or incentives in ways that would destabilize civilization. This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default.
"80,000 Hours is a London-based organization that conducts research on which careers have the largest positive social impact and provides career advice based on that research. It provides this advice on their website and podcast, and through one-on-one advice sessions."
Daniel Ellsberg on the institutional insanity that maintains large nuclear arsenals, and a practical plan for dismantling them.
A description of the thirteen events in human history so far that could have led to an unintended nuclear detonation.
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