Kinda off-topic comment about realistic X-risk disaster movies:
I’m attracted to the idea that “Deep Impact was good for raising awareness about asteroid X-risks”, and the consequent image of trying to lure Hollywood to make some big dumb disaster movies themed on different existential risks. (How would we go about doing this??? Maybe just offer to subsidize 20% of a movie’s production cost if it hits certain plot beats?) But I’d caution that people have already made movies featuring niche risks like supervolcanoes, pandemics, grey goo nanotech, etc, and none of those movies do not seem as impactful ad Deep Impact. People have also made more movies than I can imagine featuring killer robots and A.I.s, but after the initial couple of Terminator movies I don’t feel like the marginal unrealistic-killer-robots movie is going the AI risk community any good.
Personally, I would love to see a well-made disaster movie about the real, modern conception of AI risk. I am also surprised and disappointed by the fact that (even after covid!!) there are not more good movies about pandemics in the works. (Especially when there are so many zombie and post-apocalyptic movies, which are like the less-realistic cousin of the would-be pandemic genre.) I am also surprised and disappointed by the fact that there are not really any disaster movies about “modern warfare” or “world war 3″ -- maybe a Tom-Clancy-style movie about how a miscommunication between the USA and China leads them to the brink of war, or just a movie realistically portraying what a future large-scale war might look like, with attacks on satellites and drone-swarms and cyberattacks on infrastructure and the like. But I don’t think it would be good for EA to try to make any of these movies: they’d be expensive, plus the effect on the world might be negative. (A realistic movie about biorisks might be subject to infohazard concerns, while a realistic movie about modern warfare might inflame international tensions if not done carefully.)
Kinda off-topic comment about realistic X-risk disaster movies:
I’m attracted to the idea that “Deep Impact was good for raising awareness about asteroid X-risks”, and the consequent image of trying to lure Hollywood to make some big dumb disaster movies themed on different existential risks. (How would we go about doing this??? Maybe just offer to subsidize 20% of a movie’s production cost if it hits certain plot beats?) But I’d caution that people have already made movies featuring niche risks like supervolcanoes, pandemics, grey goo nanotech, etc, and none of those movies do not seem as impactful ad Deep Impact. People have also made more movies than I can imagine featuring killer robots and A.I.s, but after the initial couple of Terminator movies I don’t feel like the marginal unrealistic-killer-robots movie is going the AI risk community any good.
Personally, I would love to see a well-made disaster movie about the real, modern conception of AI risk. I am also surprised and disappointed by the fact that (even after covid!!) there are not more good movies about pandemics in the works. (Especially when there are so many zombie and post-apocalyptic movies, which are like the less-realistic cousin of the would-be pandemic genre.) I am also surprised and disappointed by the fact that there are not really any disaster movies about “modern warfare” or “world war 3″ -- maybe a Tom-Clancy-style movie about how a miscommunication between the USA and China leads them to the brink of war, or just a movie realistically portraying what a future large-scale war might look like, with attacks on satellites and drone-swarms and cyberattacks on infrastructure and the like. But I don’t think it would be good for EA to try to make any of these movies: they’d be expensive, plus the effect on the world might be negative. (A realistic movie about biorisks might be subject to infohazard concerns, while a realistic movie about modern warfare might inflame international tensions if not done carefully.)
FLI’s short clips on slaughterbots are interesting as a concept in relation to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDo1QxI260