Executive summary: This post provides an exhaustive list of cosmic threats that could pose existential risks to humanity, analyzing the severity and probability of each.
Key points:
Solar flares, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and asteroids could severely damage technology and infrastructure. Though unlikely in the next 100 years, effects may be devastating.
Intelligent alien life or self-replicating alien technology could potentially lead to human extinction, but probabilities are essentially unknown.
Cosmic phenomena like vacuum decay, magnetar flares, and explosions from the Galactic core are severe but speculative threats.
New cosmic threats are frequently being discovered, so continued research and observation are warranted, even if probabilities are very low currently.
Some known events like the Sun’s increasing luminosity pose long-term existential threats.
Overall probability estimates for cosmic threats in the next 100 years seem to range from 0.00001% to 1%, but some probabilities are unknown and new threats may emerge.
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Executive summary: This post provides an exhaustive list of cosmic threats that could pose existential risks to humanity, analyzing the severity and probability of each.
Key points:
Solar flares, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and asteroids could severely damage technology and infrastructure. Though unlikely in the next 100 years, effects may be devastating.
Intelligent alien life or self-replicating alien technology could potentially lead to human extinction, but probabilities are essentially unknown.
Cosmic phenomena like vacuum decay, magnetar flares, and explosions from the Galactic core are severe but speculative threats.
New cosmic threats are frequently being discovered, so continued research and observation are warranted, even if probabilities are very low currently.
Some known events like the Sun’s increasing luminosity pose long-term existential threats.
Overall probability estimates for cosmic threats in the next 100 years seem to range from 0.00001% to 1%, but some probabilities are unknown and new threats may emerge.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.