Exaggerating the risks Archives - Reflective altruism
Exaggerating the risks (Part 17: Biorisk, taking stock)| Reflective altruism
Exaggerating the risks (Part 17: Biorisk, taking stock)| Reflective altruism
Can existing arguments by effective altruists ground high estimates of existential biorisk? I consider three estimates provided by Piers Millett and Andrew Snyder-Beattie.| Reflective altruism
Rounding out the initial case for skepticism about existential biorisk, I give four final reasons to suspect that existential biorisk may be lower than many claim it to be.| Reflective altruism
Extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence, but that evidence is not always provided. I look at two examples of extraordinary claims based on rather less than extraordinary evidence, then draw lessons from this discussion.| Reflective altruism
Continuing my treatment of existential biorisk, I give four further reasons to suspect that existential biorisk may be lower than many claim it to be.| Reflective altruism
Effective altruists often argue that biological phenomena pose a significant near-term existential risk. In this post, I give some preliminary reasons to doubt that claim.| Reflective altruism
Many effective altruists think that humanity faces high levels of existential risk. In this series, I look at some places where the risks may have been exaggerated.| Reflective altruism
It is now widely accepted that novel infectious disease can be a leading cause of serious population decline and even outright extinction in some invertebrate and vertebrate groups (e.g., amphibians). In the case of mammals, however, there are still no well-corroborated instances of such diseases having caused or significantly contributed to the complete collapse of species. A case in point is the extinction of the endemic Christmas Island rat (Rattus macleari): although it has been argued th...| journals.plos.org
While reading I copied out 87 surprising facts in the book. Here's a sample of 16…| 80,000 Hours
