Existential Risks in an Age of Science

One of the oddities of our age is that there are two apocalyptic sensibilities that have captured two almost completely distinct groups of the scientifically literate not least among the youth: one can be found among those concerned with the effects of global warming produced by human (technological) activity. Scientifically literate apocalypticism is what concerns me in this post. The other can be found by people concerned about and often working in the development of artificial intelligence above all among those shaped by ideas derived from the philosophers associated with Long-termism. I used ‘sensibilities’ in the first sentence because when you try to look more closely at the wide diversity of views within each of the two ‘doomerist’ groups, one finds much heterogeneity in expectations (and the risks/scenarios attached to them). I find the lack of genuine interaction among these two groups very peculiar, but why this is so I will set aside. I suspect the relative absence of…

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