Thanks for sharing this question with us. This is a very interesting idea, and it’s good that someone pursues it.
Plus, my suggestions:
The Better Angels of our Nature, by Steven Pinker—particularly Ch. 4, on the “Humanitarian Revolution”. This is Pinker’s book I enjoyed most; I thought it’d be a bit long when I bought it, but in the end I was complaining it was too short.
Turchin’s Seshat database – the “Global History Database”. Btw, I guess Turchin’s mathematical approach to history may interest you, if you’re not acquainted with it yet. Besides, I notice there’s a correlation between some atrocities in White’s book and societal collapses; so perhaps you profit from checking Luke Kemp’s research. Also, if that’s what you’re looking for, studying societal collapses may provide insights for S-risk scholars on what makes unrecoverable dystopias unlikely – in the long run, they’re hard to perpetuate, depend on unstable acceptance, and face stark competition.
I emphasize djbinder’s tip on White’s book on atrocities. First, because it’s a good reading, second it helps consider some distinctions (like Lizka did infra) between , e.g., (i) long standing moral practices (like the slave trade—which I think is the point in the post you cite), (ii) “one-shot black swan” massacres which are (usually) quickly perceived as exceptional moral catastrophes (though White shows they happen more than you realize), and (iii) the ominous death toll caused by the side-effects (such as disease and hunger—the Horsemen often ride together) of conflicts, which are usually preventable and neglected. For instance, almost everyone has heard about Rwandan genocide (there’s a Hollywood movie about it), a case of (ii), but few people have heard about the millions of deaths in the Congo wars that followed it—a case of (iii).
Thanks for sharing this question with us. This is a very interesting idea, and it’s good that someone pursues it.
Plus, my suggestions:
The Better Angels of our Nature, by Steven Pinker—particularly Ch. 4, on the “Humanitarian Revolution”. This is Pinker’s book I enjoyed most; I thought it’d be a bit long when I bought it, but in the end I was complaining it was too short.
Turchin’s Seshat database – the “Global History Database”. Btw, I guess Turchin’s mathematical approach to history may interest you, if you’re not acquainted with it yet. Besides, I notice there’s a correlation between some atrocities in White’s book and societal collapses; so perhaps you profit from checking Luke Kemp’s research. Also, if that’s what you’re looking for, studying societal collapses may provide insights for S-risk scholars on what makes unrecoverable dystopias unlikely – in the long run, they’re hard to perpetuate, depend on unstable acceptance, and face stark competition.
I emphasize djbinder’s tip on White’s book on atrocities. First, because it’s a good reading, second it helps consider some distinctions (like Lizka did infra) between , e.g., (i) long standing moral practices (like the slave trade—which I think is the point in the post you cite), (ii) “one-shot black swan” massacres which are (usually) quickly perceived as exceptional moral catastrophes (though White shows they happen more than you realize), and (iii) the ominous death toll caused by the side-effects (such as disease and hunger—the Horsemen often ride together) of conflicts, which are usually preventable and neglected. For instance, almost everyone has heard about Rwandan genocide (there’s a Hollywood movie about it), a case of (ii), but few people have heard about the millions of deaths in the Congo wars that followed it—a case of (iii).