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>to devise, by means of scientific modeling and [philosophical] inquiry into the aims and purposes of mankind, an image of the future that is sufficiently catas
by perl4ever 5y ago
>to devise, by means of scientific modeling and [philosophical] inquiry into the aims and purposes of mankind, an image of the future that is sufficiently catastrophic to be repellent and sufficiently credible to produce behavior that will prevent it from being realized, barring an accident.
Trying to avoid the end of everything, can justify any actions, up to and including destroying the world in some other way.
This would be suboptimal if the alternate fate was exaggerated, on purpose or not.
I think this is the basic reason why people are skeptical of prophets of doom and not ready to give them true power.
- curation 5y agoI realized it's hard to understand the quote outside of the book; but the quote says what you are saying. The way human subjectivity works is far too complex to be directly effected. It is not an argument for exaggeration but rather to work with the reality of Climate change being between 1 and 0 and not Yes or No. Reducing a complex argument to doesn't work; but I repeat it to convince the idiot that is myself so please excuse me.