X-Risk

How to talk about AI risk without sounding like a nutjob?

Nov 9, 2022 · 2 min read · artificial intelligence x-risk ·

One of the biggest problems I have personally struggled with is how to talk about AI safety without coming off as a madman. To the uninitiated this community comes off like a cult. I've heard it called the rapture of the nerds. Yet AI Safety is also reasonable. It is based on rationality. Even the extreme proposition …

Public Health Intelligence: A Better Name for Biosecurity

Jan 10, 2021 · 2 min read · biosecurity artificial intelligence x-risk ·

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A colleague of mine mentioned the term "public health intelligence". I rather like it. I interpret this term to mean: the practice of intelligence toward the reduction of pandemic risk and the improvement of public and individual health. Throughout tens and thousands of years of human history, a nation, a …

Growing Houses: The Solution to Climate Change

Dec 29, 2020 · 3 min read · smart cities climate change x-risk ·

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Climate change can be solved. In fact: all problems which are solvable can be solved with the application of sufficient intelligence. I am against the idea of carbon sequestration for sequestration's sake. Carbon sequestration is the removal and storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It's like lighting money on …

Biothreats are an Existential Risk

Dec 27, 2020 · 2 min read · biothreats x-risk ·

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I have a friend who ponders human existential risks (x-risks) for a living. He proposed that biothreats are challenging to model as an x-risk. A virus that can kill off all of humanity is highly implausible, since you can literally put people in a box or on an island. But, a virus that would kill or maim the vast …