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sapinker's profile
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Verified account
@sapinker

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Steven PinkerVerified account

@sapinker

Cognitive scientist at Harvard.

Boston, MA
pinker.wjh.harvard.edu
Joined January 2010

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    Steven Pinker‏Verified account @sapinker Jan 19

    A new fad among scientists & technologists: Conceiving of new hypothetical "existential risks" (as opposed to real risks like climate change). Enlightenment Now has a chap. on existential risks with a different view. A glimpse in this new Science article.http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/could-science-destroy-world-these-scholars-want-save-us-modern-day-frankenstein …

    9:34 AM - 19 Jan 2018
    • 73 Retweets
    • 200 Likes
    • Hermes ☤ Huw Davies 🌸Lisa Oxford🌸 Yolande Villemaire François Chollet durpx5 Charles Ellis Al Gauchos Fùtbol 🇦🇷🇺🇸⚽️
    25 replies 73 retweets 200 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Geoffrey Miller‏Verified account @primalpoly Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        And yet, within the last few years, a large proportion of AI researchers have been convinced that they are working on a potential X-risk, and they're taking it seriously. Is it really prudent to dismiss that consensus? Would love to chat about this sometime.

        5 replies 1 retweet 28 likes
      3. Jordan Medina‏ @jmeds2000 Jan 19
        Replying to @primalpoly

        To be clear: climate change is not an existential risk. It is a global catastrophic risk. We don't all die due to climate change. Focus on the AGI alignment problem is an attempt to ensure survival of our future light cone. Climate change is also serious, but let's be specific.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Geoffrey Miller‏Verified account @primalpoly Jan 19
        Replying to @jmeds2000

        Absolutely. Global warming won't extinguish all human life. AGI could wipe out our entire cosmic endowment - which this article failed to emphasize. The stakes are quadrillions of potential sentient lives in the future -- not just the 8 billion humans now.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. Jordan Medina‏ @jmeds2000 Jan 19
        Replying to @primalpoly

        Yes! Precisely the emphasis largely missing from public perception/ articles broaching the topics. And we at least have great knowledge of deterring Climate Change. We haven't even stepped on the welcome mat of the labyrinth of studying AGI safety.

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      6. End of conversation
      1. Nick Barbier‏ @onclecochon Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        Considering future risks is not the denial of current threats.

        0 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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      1. Phil Torres‏ @xriskology Jan 26
        Replying to @sapinker

        Not sure why it would be problematic for a *tiny* number of researchers to think hard about the ways that things could go wrong. Indeed, that seems extremely prudent to me -- if only we'd had "futurists" thinking about the lasting effects of slavery, colonialism, etc.

        0 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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      1. Jonathan Aron‏ @JAron94 Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        I'm looking forward to @SamHarrisOrg setting you straight on this point

        0 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. Carlos Vilalta .´.‏ @cjvilalta Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        The day robots dream of electric sheep... we are gone.

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      3. aleks iirōn musuku‏ @aleksjames54 Jan 19
        Replying to @cjvilalta @sapinker

        Bruh, we ARE the sheep ~

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Carlos Vilalta .´.‏ @cjvilalta Jan 21
        Replying to @aleksjames54 @sapinker

        You know, you might be right...

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      5. End of conversation
      1. Aalap Kaipa‏ @akaipas Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        I think it's important to consider both. I don't see why the consideration of existential risk will directly prevent our consideration of immediate risk.

        0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
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      1. Roy Wilsker‏ @Rwilsker Jan 20
        Replying to @sapinker

        Smug and wrong-headed. This isn’t an either-or situation: looking at less obviously immediate concerns doesn’t keep you from working on other concerns. Unless you have some secret scientific knowledge that these concerns are baseless, they’re legitimate areas to worry about.

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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      1. Jacques‏ @Garcilaso87 Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        Mr Pinker, what's your stance on climate change? I've read from some well-informed people that it has been greatly exaggerated. There are some skeptical scientists too.

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. Andre Infante‏ @AndreTI Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        It's a shame that branding thing hypothetical and smugly closing your eyes does not, in fact, protect you.

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      3. 1 more reply
      1. Marl Karx‏ @FedoraMarxist Jan 19
        Replying to @sapinker

        Id rather us be vigilant about potential doomsday scenarios we could create instead of using your naive optimism to brush off threats.

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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      1. New conversation
      2. Scott Leibrand‏ @scottleibrand Jan 26
        Replying to @sapinker

        Is there any plausible scenario in which climate change kills more than half of humanity? AI alignment aside, it seems worth further mitigating the very real risk that nuclear war or bioengineered pathogens could kill enough people to collapse civilization. @GernotWagner

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Gernot Wagner‏Verified account @GernotWagner Jan 26
        Replying to @scottleibrand @sapinker

        Good questions. No easy answers. FWIW, chapter 4 of Climate Shock has Marty Weitzman's & my musings on it.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. Scott Leibrand‏ @scottleibrand Jan 26
        Replying to @GernotWagner @sapinker

        Thanks. I’ll bump that up in my to-read queue.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. End of conversation

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