My memory is somewhat fuzzy here because it was almost 20 years ago, but I seem to recall discussions on Extropians about far future “bad” outcomes. In those early days much of the discussion focused around salient outcomes like “robots wipe out humans” that we picked up from fiction or outcomes that let people grind their particular axes (capitalist dystopian future! ecoterrorist dystopian future! ___ dystopian future!), but there was definitely more serious focus around some particular issues.
I remember we worried a lot about grey goo, AIs, extraterrestrial aliens, pandemics, nuclear weapons, etc. A lot of it was focused on getting wiped out (existential threats), but some of it was about undesirable outcomes we wouldn’t want to live in. Some of this was about s-risks I’m sure, but I feel like a lot of it was really more about worries over value drift.
I’m not sure there’s much else there, though. We knew bad outcomes were possible, but we were mostly optimistic and hadn’t developed anything like the risk-avoidance mindset that’s become relatively more prevalent today.
I’d be interested to hear more about that if you want to take the time.
My memory is somewhat fuzzy here because it was almost 20 years ago, but I seem to recall discussions on Extropians about far future “bad” outcomes. In those early days much of the discussion focused around salient outcomes like “robots wipe out humans” that we picked up from fiction or outcomes that let people grind their particular axes (capitalist dystopian future! ecoterrorist dystopian future! ___ dystopian future!), but there was definitely more serious focus around some particular issues.
I remember we worried a lot about grey goo, AIs, extraterrestrial aliens, pandemics, nuclear weapons, etc. A lot of it was focused on getting wiped out (existential threats), but some of it was about undesirable outcomes we wouldn’t want to live in. Some of this was about s-risks I’m sure, but I feel like a lot of it was really more about worries over value drift.
I’m not sure there’s much else there, though. We knew bad outcomes were possible, but we were mostly optimistic and hadn’t developed anything like the risk-avoidance mindset that’s become relatively more prevalent today.