Thanks for writing this! I think your point is crucial and too often missed or misrepresented in discussions on this.
A related key point is that the best approach to mitigating catastrophic/existential risks depends heavily on whether one comes at it from a longtermist angle or not. For example, this choice determines how compelling it is to focus on strategies or interventions for civilisational resilience and recovery.
To take the example of biosecurity: In some (but not all) cases, interventions to prevent catastrophe from biological risks look quite different from interventions to prevent extinction from biology. And the difference between catastrophe and extinction really does depend on what one thinks about longtermism and the importance of future generations.
Thanks for writing this! I think your point is crucial and too often missed or misrepresented in discussions on this.
A related key point is that the best approach to mitigating catastrophic/existential risks depends heavily on whether one comes at it from a longtermist angle or not. For example, this choice determines how compelling it is to focus on strategies or interventions for civilisational resilience and recovery.
To take the example of biosecurity: In some (but not all) cases, interventions to prevent catastrophe from biological risks look quite different from interventions to prevent extinction from biology. And the difference between catastrophe and extinction really does depend on what one thinks about longtermism and the importance of future generations.