Thanks Michael! I agree space colonization may not be strictly required for achieving a stable state of low x-risk, but because it’s the “canonical” vision of the stable low-risk future, I would feel significantly more uncertain if we were to rule out the possibility of expansion into space, and I would be inclined to be skeptical-by-default, particularly if we are picturing biological humans, because it seems like there are a large number of possible ways the environmental conditions needed for survival might be destroyed and it intuitively seems like “offense” would have an advantage over “defense” there. But I haven’t thought deeply about the technology that would be needed to preserve a state of low x-risk entirely on Earth and I’d expect my views would change a lot with only a few hours of thinking on this.
Thanks Michael! I agree space colonization may not be strictly required for achieving a stable state of low x-risk, but because it’s the “canonical” vision of the stable low-risk future, I would feel significantly more uncertain if we were to rule out the possibility of expansion into space, and I would be inclined to be skeptical-by-default, particularly if we are picturing biological humans, because it seems like there are a large number of possible ways the environmental conditions needed for survival might be destroyed and it intuitively seems like “offense” would have an advantage over “defense” there. But I haven’t thought deeply about the technology that would be needed to preserve a state of low x-risk entirely on Earth and I’d expect my views would change a lot with only a few hours of thinking on this.