Related to #4, I have a paper under review, with a preprint HERE, discussing an aspect of fragility.
Title: Systemic Fragility as a Vulnerable World
Abstract: The possibility of social and technological collapse has been the focus of science fiction tropes for decades, but more recent focus has been on specific sources of existential and global catastrophic risk. Because these scenarios are simple to understand and envision, they receive more attention than risks due to complex interplay of failures, or risks that cannot be clearly specified. In this paper, we discuss a new hypothesis that complexity of a certain type can itself function as a source of risk. This ”Fragile World Hypothesis” is compared to Bostroms ”Vulnerable World Hypothesis”, and the assumptions and potential mitigations are contrasted.
Related to #4, I have a paper under review, with a preprint HERE, discussing an aspect of fragility.
Title: Systemic Fragility as a Vulnerable World
Abstract: The possibility of social and technological collapse has been the focus of science fiction tropes for decades, but more recent focus has been on specific sources of existential and global catastrophic risk. Because these scenarios are simple to understand and envision, they receive more attention than risks due to complex interplay of failures, or risks that cannot be clearly specified. In this paper, we discuss a new hypothesis that complexity of a certain type can itself function as a source of risk. This ”Fragile World Hypothesis” is compared to Bostroms ”Vulnerable World Hypothesis”, and the assumptions and potential mitigations are contrasted.