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I came to this post by searching for “Metacrisis”.
I genuinely believe that Metacrisis is the underlying mechanism / generator function / incentive (or pervert incentive) affecting loads of existential / catasthropic risks.
A new video just dropped:
The talk literally has “global catastrophic risks” on the title slide.
I think that EA (Give Well, Open Philanthropy) focus too much on one metric such as DALY, without appreciating the interconnectedness and the fact that many things are difficult to measure using a single metric.
There’s no agreement that there is a meta-crisis. Yes, there are multiple sources of danger, and they can interact synergistically and strongly (or so I believe), but that’s not the same as saying that there must be root causes for those (global, existential) dangers that humanity can address.
If you asked a different question, like: “What are the underlying drivers of the multiple anthropogenic existential threats that we all face, like nuclear war, engineered pandemics, climate destruction, etc?”
You could get some interesting answers from people who think in those terms. I’m curious what others here think.
But the answer to why underlying drivers are not addressed is easy to deduce: lack of belief, interest, or education in the matter.
This question (Jan 29), your comment (Feb 4)… I think many things changed now (Sep 16)
I think there is much more written material and much more understanding about the metacrisis.
It is clear to me that it exists.
I think that your approach of enumerating the factors “underlying drivers of the multiple anthropogenic existential threats” does not give the justive. The whole concept of metacrisis is that they are interconnected and need to be adressed as whole.
Thanks for all the answers so far! Collectively they were really helpful to get a sense of how this discussion could be framed in a productive way. I am quite looking forward to push this conversation further, I think there is much to be gained here for all perspectives involved.