In your book, you define an existential catastrophe as “the destruction of humanity’s longterm potential”. Would defining it instead as “the destruction of the vast majority of the longterm potential for value in the universe” capture the concept you wish to refer to? Would it perhaps slightly more technically accurately/explicitly capture what you wish to refer to, just perhaps in a less accessible or emotionally resonating way?
I wonder this partly because you write:
It is not that I think only humans count. Instead, it is that humans are the only beings we know of that are responsive to moral reasons and moral argument—the beings who can examine the world and decide to do what is best. If we fail, that upwards force, that capacity to push towards what is best or what is just, will vanish from the world.
It also seems to me that “the destruction of the vast majority of the longterm potential for value in the universe” would seem to be meaningfully more similar to what I’m really interested in avoiding than the destruction of humanity’s potential if/when AGI, aliens, or other intelligent life evolving on earth becomes or is predicted to become an important shaper of events (either now or in the distant future).
In your book, you define an existential catastrophe as “the destruction of humanity’s longterm potential”. Would defining it instead as “the destruction of the vast majority of the longterm potential for value in the universe” capture the concept you wish to refer to? Would it perhaps slightly more technically accurately/explicitly capture what you wish to refer to, just perhaps in a less accessible or emotionally resonating way?
I wonder this partly because you write:
It also seems to me that “the destruction of the vast majority of the longterm potential for value in the universe” would seem to be meaningfully more similar to what I’m really interested in avoiding than the destruction of humanity’s potential if/when AGI, aliens, or other intelligent life evolving on earth becomes or is predicted to become an important shaper of events (either now or in the distant future).