Executive summary: The Rethink Priorities CURVE sequence raised important critiques of existential risk reduction as an overwhelming priority, but gaps remain in understanding whether some x-risk interventions may still be robustly valuable and what the best alternatives are.
Key points:
X-risk reduction may only be astronomically valuable under specific scenarios like fast value growth and time of perils that seem unlikely.
It’s unclear if some x-risk interventions avoid these critiques by being uniquely persistent and contingent.
If x-risk falls, it’s unclear what the best cause area is—global health, animal welfare, or something else?
There are still open questions around issues like fanaticism, problems with alternate decision theories, and foundational cause prioritization.
More research is needed to settle the debates raised by the CURVE sequence.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The Rethink Priorities CURVE sequence raised important critiques of existential risk reduction as an overwhelming priority, but gaps remain in understanding whether some x-risk interventions may still be robustly valuable and what the best alternatives are.
Key points:
X-risk reduction may only be astronomically valuable under specific scenarios like fast value growth and time of perils that seem unlikely.
It’s unclear if some x-risk interventions avoid these critiques by being uniquely persistent and contingent.
If x-risk falls, it’s unclear what the best cause area is—global health, animal welfare, or something else?
There are still open questions around issues like fanaticism, problems with alternate decision theories, and foundational cause prioritization.
More research is needed to settle the debates raised by the CURVE sequence.
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.