Interesting! One potential downside my mind immediately goes to is public perception, in the (hopefully probable) case that such a contingency plan isn’t needed. In popular culture, the idea of a privileged (usually very wealthy) class of people escaping to an “ark” as the world ends for everyone else is generally considered a classic evil villain trope. For instance, in Don’t Look Up (a recent Hollywood
blockbuster involving a GCR), the good guy scientists are offered a refuge in the evil president’s secret escape spaceship, but refuse. This is presented as the heroic and correct thing to do, even though refusing was an effective act of suicide (within the context of the movie). Not that your idea is actually in any way a bad one, but I would wager that the similarities between your proposition and what evil Hollywood villains stereotypically do is likely to increase the public perception of EA folks being cult-like (if your plan captures any press attention), which could potentially drive talent away, and discourage outsiders from cooperating with the community. All that being said, this is ultimately a rather minor concern compared to, say, the possibility of human extinction, so take the above with a grain of salt. If you do plan on going ahead with this on a large scale, I would definitely talk to some people outside the community with PR experience, so as to minimize any possible negative social effects. Good luck!!!
I’m hopeful that most people would see the difference between “rich people trying to save their own skin” and “allowing researchers who are trying to make sure humanity has a long-term future at all to continue their work”, but I would be very happy to have leads on who to talk to about presenting this well.
Should be noted that while there are indeed tons of people who will fault you for taking steps to survive GCR, in the aftermath of a GCR most of those people will be dead (or at the very least, hypocrites who did the thing they’re upset about) and thus not able to fault you for anything. History is written by, if not the winners, at least the survivors.
Admittedly, this is contingent on the GCR happening, but I think there’s a pretty-high chance of nuclear war in particular in the near future (the Paul Symon interview in particular has me spooked; a random saying that a “linear path” leads to “major-power conflict” would be meh, but a Five Eyes intelligence chief saying it—well, I might be right or wrong about my guesses at what’s prompting that, but I’ll take the oracle statement at face value and that’s P(WWIII) ~> 0.5).
Interesting! One potential downside my mind immediately goes to is public perception, in the (hopefully probable) case that such a contingency plan isn’t needed. In popular culture, the idea of a privileged (usually very wealthy) class of people escaping to an “ark” as the world ends for everyone else is generally considered a classic evil villain trope. For instance, in Don’t Look Up (a recent Hollywood blockbuster involving a GCR), the good guy scientists are offered a refuge in the evil president’s secret escape spaceship, but refuse. This is presented as the heroic and correct thing to do, even though refusing was an effective act of suicide (within the context of the movie). Not that your idea is actually in any way a bad one, but I would wager that the similarities between your proposition and what evil Hollywood villains stereotypically do is likely to increase the public perception of EA folks being cult-like (if your plan captures any press attention), which could potentially drive talent away, and discourage outsiders from cooperating with the community. All that being said, this is ultimately a rather minor concern compared to, say, the possibility of human extinction, so take the above with a grain of salt. If you do plan on going ahead with this on a large scale, I would definitely talk to some people outside the community with PR experience, so as to minimize any possible negative social effects. Good luck!!!
I’m hopeful that most people would see the difference between “rich people trying to save their own skin” and “allowing researchers who are trying to make sure humanity has a long-term future at all to continue their work”, but I would be very happy to have leads on who to talk to about presenting this well.
Should be noted that while there are indeed tons of people who will fault you for taking steps to survive GCR, in the aftermath of a GCR most of those people will be dead (or at the very least, hypocrites who did the thing they’re upset about) and thus not able to fault you for anything. History is written by, if not the winners, at least the survivors.
Admittedly, this is contingent on the GCR happening, but I think there’s a pretty-high chance of nuclear war in particular in the near future (the Paul Symon interview in particular has me spooked; a random saying that a “linear path” leads to “major-power conflict” would be meh, but a Five Eyes intelligence chief saying it—well, I might be right or wrong about my guesses at what’s prompting that, but I’ll take the oracle statement at face value and that’s P(WWIII) ~> 0.5).