Unimportant bonus info about the history of the term/âconcept âexistential securityâ, and of this post:
It seems that concepts corresponding to what Ord calls âexistential securityâ, or something similar, had been discussed under various names by various authors for several years prior to the release of The Precipice. But there didnât seem to be any really detailed discussion of the concept until The Precipice.
And the term âexistential securityâ had almost never been used for this concept, based on the first two pages of results when I googled ââexistential securityâ âexistential riskââ in February 2020 (before The Precipice was released). The only really relevant result was Will MacAskill, in a 2018 podcast interview, saying âThe first [stage] is to reduce extinction risks down basically to zero, put us a position of kind of existential securityâ. Most results were just things calling climate change an âexistential security riskâ.
I was doing that googling in February because I was pretty sure Iâd heard of this concept, but I couldnât find any proper write-up on it, and thus decided I might write a post about it. I was intending to use the term âexistential securityâ, but to also suggest the terms âexistential safetyâ and âexistential stabilityâ as options. But then I decided that, as The Precipice would be released a month later, Iâd hold off till I read that, in case Ord discussed this idea.
And indeed, it turned out Ord discussed this concept thoroughly and well, and using the term Iâd been leaning towards.[1]
But there was no summary of Ordâs conceptualisation of existential security on the EA Forum or LessWrong. So I decided to adapt my draft into such a summary, as well as a discussion of how this concept relates to other terms and concepts. And then I later abandoned the idea of comparing the concept to other terms and concepts, though you can find my unpolished notes on that here.
[1] Iâm unsure whether this is a result of:
me independently converging on the same idea (perhaps primed by MacAskillâs one mention of the term), or
the idea having been occasionally discussed verbally in ways that reached meâbut that Iâve since forgottenâdespite the idea having not been on the internet yet.
Unimportant bonus info about the history of the term/âconcept âexistential securityâ, and of this post:
It seems that concepts corresponding to what Ord calls âexistential securityâ, or something similar, had been discussed under various names by various authors for several years prior to the release of The Precipice. But there didnât seem to be any really detailed discussion of the concept until The Precipice.
And the term âexistential securityâ had almost never been used for this concept, based on the first two pages of results when I googled ââexistential securityâ âexistential riskââ in February 2020 (before The Precipice was released). The only really relevant result was Will MacAskill, in a 2018 podcast interview, saying âThe first [stage] is to reduce extinction risks down basically to zero, put us a position of kind of existential securityâ. Most results were just things calling climate change an âexistential security riskâ.
I was doing that googling in February because I was pretty sure Iâd heard of this concept, but I couldnât find any proper write-up on it, and thus decided I might write a post about it. I was intending to use the term âexistential securityâ, but to also suggest the terms âexistential safetyâ and âexistential stabilityâ as options. But then I decided that, as The Precipice would be released a month later, Iâd hold off till I read that, in case Ord discussed this idea.
And indeed, it turned out Ord discussed this concept thoroughly and well, and using the term Iâd been leaning towards.[1]
But there was no summary of Ordâs conceptualisation of existential security on the EA Forum or LessWrong. So I decided to adapt my draft into such a summary, as well as a discussion of how this concept relates to other terms and concepts. And then I later abandoned the idea of comparing the concept to other terms and concepts, though you can find my unpolished notes on that here.
[1] Iâm unsure whether this is a result of:
me independently converging on the same idea (perhaps primed by MacAskillâs one mention of the term), or
the idea having been occasionally discussed verbally in ways that reached meâbut that Iâve since forgottenâdespite the idea having not been on the internet yet.