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I considered myself a longtermist, but climate change is the #1 risk to me, not AI, and I thought this prioritization was more common amongst the EA and longter
by thundergolfer 3y ago
I considered myself a longtermist, but climate change is the #1 risk to me, not AI, and I thought this prioritization was more common amongst the EA and longtermist communities. But my longtermist views come mainly from Derek Parfit, and it's probably the case that the contemporary longtermists are not of Parfit's kind, and unhealthily intertwined with billionaire weirdos (Theil, SBF).
> But longtermists have an answer to this conundrum: the so-called ‘value-neutrality thesis’. This states that technology is a morally neutral object, ie, ‘just a tool’.
This is indeed a stupid idea, but the writer's following examples don't show longtermists endorsing this view. What Toby Ord is arguing is about an incompatibility between technological advancement and public ignorance (invoking Sagan, as he should). As Margaret Mead said, you can have advancement in technology, but you "have to move the whole pattern". You have to change the social, political, and educational realms in concert with technological change. The editor of this piece really should have fixed this part of the essay, because it's obviously weak.
- HDThoreaun 3y agoHow could climate change lead to an extinction event? Seems impossible to me even if it kills billions. Extremely easy to see how AI leads to an extinction event.
- 8note 3y agoYou can look at Venus as an example
- dublinben 3y agoThe most dramatic example of climate induced extinction that many of us learned about as children would be the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event 66 million years ago. This was most likely exogenous (caused by an enormous asteroid) but it still resulted in the "sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth." Most notably this included the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_e...
- __loam 3y agoMost of the mass extinction events in the geological history of this planet were related to rapid changes in the atmospheric composition, and we are currently living through a rapid decline in biodiversity caused by human activity. This statement is incredibly ignorant.
- HDThoreaun 3y agoMost species on earth have been much less industrious than humans. I suppose I should’ve specified human extinction I guess
- __loam 3y agoEcological collapse from human industriousness is a direct threat to our food supply and survival as a species.
- HDThoreaun 3y agono it's not. Many people will die due to global warming and ecological collapse, but humanity will be fine.
- imtringued 3y agoAI and climate change extinction events are equally likely to me because they need the same amount of wishful thinking that literally everything goes wrong perfectly. After all, both can be seen coming with plenty of notice. If the extinction event is avoidable humans will prepare against it.