The count of “How many humans will be born” is a pretty useful number to engage in moral reasoning about how our actions today relate to the future. If we neglect carbon induced climate change because we wont be around for the worst of it, we are dooming potentially trillions of future humans to a lousy existance because of our lack of action. If we assume that their lives will have the same value as our own (We do have to be careful with this line of reasoning, it can have intolerable implications on a currently hot topic in the courts when taken to its logical ends), then the immorality of ignoring their plight is legion. Bad news.
Putting a number on it, lets us factor that into a utilitarian calculus. Good stuff. Kurzgesagt really do science communications the right way.
Shayne O'Neill
Karma: 36
I think people need to remember one very very important mantra;- “I might be wrong!”. We all love trying to calculate the odds , weighing up the possibilities, and then deciding “Well Im very informed, I must be right!”. But we always have a possibllity of being stonkingly, and hilariously, wrong on every count. There are no soothsayers, the future isn’t here.
For all we know, AGI turns up, out of the blue, and it turns out to be one of those friendly minds out of the old Iain Banks novels, fond by default of their simple mush brained human antecedents and ready and willing to help. I mean, its possible right?
And it might just be like that, because we all did the work. And then you get to tell your grandkids one day “Hey we used to be a bit worried the minds would kill us all. But I helped research a way to make sure that never happens”. And your grandkids will think your somewhat excellent. Isn’t that a good thought.