It seems that thinking about and working on avoiding existential risks would lead to identification of points of failures that lead to various horrible futures. Maybe inherent in longtermism is that survival is ongoing, and that to become conscious of the various and many threats to us and the universe is to also be conscious of the daunting possibilities ahead of us. If we weren’t conscious of these risks, we might miss a huge fundamental truth about the way the universe works and thus exclude ourselves from being able to stay in the universe. It is almost like it would be a failure to see something that our vantage point in history makes possible to see. Because we have failed to see whatever it is, it is like we have repeated the mistakes of history. It almost like that except thatthere would be no precedent in history for it. Being more aware of the background risks could make one more appreciative of everyday life, and thus they would treat the world and life around them better and leave it better than it was before they showed up to enjoy it.
My understanding is that several nuclear and bio attacks were avoided because someone along the chain of command had a gut feeling or line of reasoning that made them decide not to pull the trigger or press the button, or not to give someone else the order to do so. For that reason, I imagine “the place where we survived” as it relates to counterfactual histories caused by nuclear or bio attacks is a gut feeling or line of reasoning.
Thanks for the story, I enjoyed it.
It seems that thinking about and working on avoiding existential risks would lead to identification of points of failures that lead to various horrible futures. Maybe inherent in longtermism is that survival is ongoing, and that to become conscious of the various and many threats to us and the universe is to also be conscious of the daunting possibilities ahead of us. If we weren’t conscious of these risks, we might miss a huge fundamental truth about the way the universe works and thus exclude ourselves from being able to stay in the universe. It is almost like it would be a failure to see something that our vantage point in history makes possible to see. Because we have failed to see whatever it is, it is like we have repeated the mistakes of history. It almost like that except thatthere would be no precedent in history for it. Being more aware of the background risks could make one more appreciative of everyday life, and thus they would treat the world and life around them better and leave it better than it was before they showed up to enjoy it.
My understanding is that several nuclear and bio attacks were avoided because someone along the chain of command had a gut feeling or line of reasoning that made them decide not to pull the trigger or press the button, or not to give someone else the order to do so. For that reason, I imagine “the place where we survived” as it relates to counterfactual histories caused by nuclear or bio attacks is a gut feeling or line of reasoning.