When I say that the idea is entrenched in popular opinion, I’m mostly referring to people in the space science/engineering fields—either as workers, researchers or enthusiasts. This is anecdotal based on my experience as a PhD candidate in space science. In the broader public, I think you’d be right that people would think about it much less, however the researchers and the policy makers are the ones you’d need to convince for something like this, in my view.
Ah, that makes sense, then. And I’d also guess that researchers and policy makers are the main people that would need to be convinced.
But that might also be partly because the general public probably doesn’t think about this much or have a very strong/solidified opinion; that might make it easier for researchers and policy makers to act in either direction without worrying about popular opinion, and mean this can be a case of pulling the rope sideways. So influencing the development of asteroid deflection technology might still be more tractable in that particular regard than influencing AI development, since there’s a smaller set of minds needing changing. (Though I’d still prioritise AI anyway due to the seemingly much greater probability of extreme outcomes there.)
I should also caveat that I don’t know much at all about the asteroid deflection space.
When I say that the idea is entrenched in popular opinion, I’m mostly referring to people in the space science/engineering fields—either as workers, researchers or enthusiasts. This is anecdotal based on my experience as a PhD candidate in space science. In the broader public, I think you’d be right that people would think about it much less, however the researchers and the policy makers are the ones you’d need to convince for something like this, in my view.
Ah, that makes sense, then. And I’d also guess that researchers and policy makers are the main people that would need to be convinced.
But that might also be partly because the general public probably doesn’t think about this much or have a very strong/solidified opinion; that might make it easier for researchers and policy makers to act in either direction without worrying about popular opinion, and mean this can be a case of pulling the rope sideways. So influencing the development of asteroid deflection technology might still be more tractable in that particular regard than influencing AI development, since there’s a smaller set of minds needing changing. (Though I’d still prioritise AI anyway due to the seemingly much greater probability of extreme outcomes there.)
I should also caveat that I don’t know much at all about the asteroid deflection space.