Thanks. My claim is somewhat different, though. Adams says that “whenever humanity can see a slow-moving disaster coming, we find a way to avoid it”. This is an all-things-considered claim. My claim is rather that sleepwalk bias is a pro-tanto consideration indicating that we’re too pessimistic about future disasters (perhaps especially slow-moving ones). I’m not claiming that we never sleepwalk into a disaster. Indeed, there might be stronger countervailing considerations, which if true would mean that all things considered we are too optimistic about existential risk.
Thanks. My claim is somewhat different, though. Adams says that “whenever humanity can see a slow-moving disaster coming, we find a way to avoid it”. This is an all-things-considered claim. My claim is rather that sleepwalk bias is a pro-tanto consideration indicating that we’re too pessimistic about future disasters (perhaps especially slow-moving ones). I’m not claiming that we never sleepwalk into a disaster. Indeed, there might be stronger countervailing considerations, which if true would mean that all things considered we are too optimistic about existential risk.