The United Persons » Extinction

Existential risk preventions as the most important task…

mazsa — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 06:37:08 +0000

Existential risk preventions as the most important task for humanity http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.pdf

The colonization of outer space is key to…

mazsa — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:35:11 +0000

The colonization of outer space is key to the survival of humankind. It will be difficult for the world’s inhabitants to avoid disaster in the next hundred years. We are entering an increasingly dangerous period of our history. Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million. Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space. This is why I favour “personed” space flight and encourage further study into how to make space colonization possible.

Stephen Hawking

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US today released environmental and health nanotech strategy…

mazsa — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:56:26 +0000

US today released environmental and health nanotech strategy http://www.nano.gov/sites/default/files/pub_resource/nni_ehs_research_strategy.pdf Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

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The development of an artificial intelligence may lead…

mazsa — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:35:10 +0000

The development of an artificial intelligence may lead to the destruction of the human race. What we may need to also consider the possibility that not inventing such an intelligence might be the more dangerous option.

Alonzo Fyfe

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Cognitive biases&global risks&reduction …

mazsa — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:25:00 +0000

Cognitive biases&global risks&reduction of risks:

Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks: “All else being equal, not many people would prefer to destroy the world. Even faceless corporations, meddling governments, reckless scientists, and other agents of doom, require a world in which to achieve their goals of profit, order, tenure, or other villainies. If our extinction proceeds slowly enough to allow a moment of horrified realization, the doers of the deed will likely be quite taken aback on realizing that they have actually destroyed the world. Therefore I suggest that if the Earth is destroyed, it will probably be by mistake.

The systematic experimental study of reproducible errors of human reasoning, and what these errors reveal about underlying mental processes, is known as the heuristics and biases program in cognitive psychology. This program has made discoveries highly relevant to assessors of global catastrophic risks. [...]” http://singinst.org/upload/cognitive-biases.pdf

Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction: “In this century a number of events could extinguish humanity. The probability of these events may be very low, but the expected value of preventing them could be high, as it represents the value of all future human lives. We review the challenges to studying human extinction risks and, by way of example, estimate the cost effectiveness of preventing extinction-level asteroid impacts. [...]” http://www.paforge.com/files/articles/Reducing%20the%20Risk%20of%20Human%20Extinction.pdf

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