Resource shortage (as JoshuaZ raises) is the discussion I was thinking of. Thanks for the link to that essay—I hadn’t read it, and it’s worth reading as is so often the case with him.
I’d also remark that the asteroid risk seems like it might be worth thinking about, not because it’s at all at the top of the list of things that might go wrong, but because it might be cheap to dispense with. I don’t have relevant subject matter knowledge but am friends with an applied physics graduate student who suggested that it might cost 100 million dollars or less. Maybe even around a mere 10 million dollars.
Carl expresses skepticism that working against asteroid strikes is cost-effective here.
Asteroid risk is a good “poster child” for existential risk in general, since it’s easily understood and doesn’t provoke skepticism the way other risks can. To some extent, this means I’m less worried about it, since I’m more optimistic that if I don’t campaign about it someone else will.
I read in Influence that people are much more likely to identify with a cause once they’ve made a small commitment to it. Perhaps the best thing we can do for existential risk is to track down people who seem like intelligent, rational sorts and ask them to make very small contributions to preventing asteroid risk?
I wish. Last time I read about it the U.S. gov wasn’t inclined to spend the few million necessary for an all-sky survey to register all potentially dangerous objects.
Is it only expected to be a few million? This could easily be privately funded with a good advertising campaign. For example, a project which might have a similar audience, SETI, is entirely privately funded and has a budget of a few million a year.
Still no joy I’m afraid. Is it possible your sender IP is listed by zen.spamhaus.org? I’ve checked my junk folder for things titled “asteroid” and found nothing. If you can tell me the sender address I can tell you if it’s showing up in my mail logs. Sorry!
Resource shortage (as JoshuaZ raises) is the discussion I was thinking of. Thanks for the link to that essay—I hadn’t read it, and it’s worth reading as is so often the case with him.
I’d also remark that the asteroid risk seems like it might be worth thinking about, not because it’s at all at the top of the list of things that might go wrong, but because it might be cheap to dispense with. I don’t have relevant subject matter knowledge but am friends with an applied physics graduate student who suggested that it might cost 100 million dollars or less. Maybe even around a mere 10 million dollars.
Carl expresses skepticism that working against asteroid strikes is cost-effective here.
Asteroid risk is a good “poster child” for existential risk in general, since it’s easily understood and doesn’t provoke skepticism the way other risks can. To some extent, this means I’m less worried about it, since I’m more optimistic that if I don’t campaign about it someone else will.
I read in Influence that people are much more likely to identify with a cause once they’ve made a small commitment to it. Perhaps the best thing we can do for existential risk is to track down people who seem like intelligent, rational sorts and ask them to make very small contributions to preventing asteroid risk?
I wish. Last time I read about it the U.S. gov wasn’t inclined to spend the few million necessary for an all-sky survey to register all potentially dangerous objects.
Is it only expected to be a few million? This could easily be privately funded with a good advertising campaign. For example, a project which might have a similar audience, SETI, is entirely privately funded and has a budget of a few million a year.
Part of why I mention asteroid risk is because it’s a good poster child for existential risk in general. See the document which I emailed you.
Not received it yet—what address did you mail it to? Try paul at ciphergoth dot org.
Sent
Still no joy I’m afraid. Is it possible your sender IP is listed by zen.spamhaus.org? I’ve checked my junk folder for things titled “asteroid” and found nothing. If you can tell me the sender address I can tell you if it’s showing up in my mail logs. Sorry!