Andart

My essay survived!

An essay by me, Jason G. Matheny, and Milan M. Ćirković, How can we reduce the risk of human extinction? has just been published in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Feels extra suitable given the LHC test lap today.

The discussion on Skiften about global catastrophic risks the last week has been pretty interesting. We have been discussing the problem of abstract risks, particle physics of course, what disasters sell best in media, whether we benefit from evil people causing disasters that we then tighten our defenses against, fat tail issues, and the difference between "classical" disasters and "relativistic/quantum disasters". I think Alexander Funcke had the most quotable conclusion: "Eggs and baskets should be written as plurals when we are dealing with the survival of the species".