I am really happy you are focusing squarely on existential risk from bio. I think there is a tendency in EA-adjacent biosec work to lose a bit of focus on how extremely bad such scenarios are. I also think it is great you raised this Michelle—I also feel like not enough EAs have contemplated the importance of 2 further assumptions needed to work on longtermism:
1 - Massive increase in value in the future (re: Arepo’s billions of star civilization), and 2 - Very few or not other periods of existential risk for the rest of the infinite future
I am really happy you are focusing squarely on existential risk from bio. I think there is a tendency in EA-adjacent biosec work to lose a bit of focus on how extremely bad such scenarios are. I also think it is great you raised this Michelle—I also feel like not enough EAs have contemplated the importance of 2 further assumptions needed to work on longtermism:
1 - Massive increase in value in the future (re: Arepo’s billions of star civilization), and
2 - Very few or not other periods of existential risk for the rest of the infinite future