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Do you find any existential risk concerns compelling? I'm tend to be pretty nervous about "prevent very bad but very unlikely things from happening" arguments, but I also feel various 20th century close calls with nuclear weapons were... way too close for comfort.

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Nicholas Schiefer

@nschiefer

Jul 24, 2021

Gotcha. I'm pretty curious about the partial extinction risk: what makes it basically as bad as total extinction? Is it a "future humans matter much less than current humans" perspective (or a really high discount rate), or something else?

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Nicholas Schiefer

@nschiefer

Jul 24, 2021

The trauma perspective (both institutional and personal) is really interesting, thanks!

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Nicholas Schiefer

@nschiefer

Jul 24, 2021

I agree that partial extinction is real, and that existential risk is uniquely, uh, "fun" to talk about, and therefore requires extra hygiene. I think reasonable people can disagree about the worth of living after losing e.g., most of a family.

Nicholas Schiefer

@nschiefer

Replying to

@nschiefer

I don't have the hubris to say that *I* would be that resilient, but I am very grateful that some of my ancestors (some of whom did lose ~their entire family and possibly, like, almost their entire village?) found a way to keep going.

11:21 PM · Jul 24, 2021Twitter Web App

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I've never thought about the possibility that we might just... lose the will/resilience/desire to keep going, rather than gallantly rebuilding. That's some serious stuff, and as you say probably much more likely than total extinction.

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