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Archive for the ‘existential risks’ category: Page 12

Mar 2, 2024

The Philosophy of Star Trek [Federation, Post Scarcity Economy, Alien Cultures]

Posted by in categories: alien life, economics, existential risks

Star Trek is the most popular and longest running Sci-Fi franchise in American history. Created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek follows the various crew of Starfleet in their missions across the galaxy.

This presentation showcases the inspiration behind Star Trek, how the Federation came to be, examines the post-scarcity economy featured in their future Earth society, and explores the philosophies of all of the major alien cultures shown throughout the Star Trek series.

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Feb 27, 2024

Nasal drops might prevent PTSD

Posted by in categories: existential risks, neuroscience

New research shows that nasal drops of neuropeptide Y triggers extinction of fear memories in an animal model of PTSD.

Feb 27, 2024

NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX asteroid probe wakes up after surviving close pass by the sun

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

The probe “performed as predicted” during the first of seven close approaches to the sun on its way to Apophis, NASA said.

Feb 24, 2024

We Need a Far Better Plan for Dealing With Existential Threat

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, existential risks, food, government, lifeboat, military, robotics/AI

Here’s my latest Opinion piece just out for Newsweek. Check it out! Lifeboat Foundation mentioned.


We need to remember that universal distress we all had when the world started to shut down in March 2020: when not enough ventilators and hospital beds could be found; when food shelves and supplies were scarce; when no COVID-19 vaccines existed. We need to remember because COVID is just one of many different existential risks that can appear out of nowhere, and halt our lives as we know it.

Naturally, I’m glad that the world has carried on with its head high after the pandemic, but I’m also worried that more people didn’t take to heart a longer-term philosophical view that human and earthly life is highly tentative. The best, most practical way to protect ourselves from more existential risks is to try to protect ourselves ahead of time.

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Feb 23, 2024

Ask Ethan: How long will life persist in our Universe?

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

There are plenty of life-friendly stellar systems in the Universe today. But at some point in the far future, life’s final extinction will occur.

Feb 19, 2024

NASA Reveals How It Would Warn World of Impending Asteroid Disaster

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks, military

When the Chicxulub impactor, a six-mile-wide asteroid, struck Earth 66 million years ago, the dinosaurs had no warning.

If an asteroid that size hit Earth today, a shock wave two million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb would flatten forests and trigger tsunamis. A seismic pulse equal to a magnitude 10 earthquake would crumble cities.

And long after the impact, a cloud of hot dust, ash, and steam would blot out the sun, plunging the Earth into freezing cold.

Feb 17, 2024

Oppenheimer’s Grandson Signs Letter Saying AI Threatens “Life on Earth”

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military, robotics/AI

J. Robert Oppenheimer’s grandson is among the star-studded signatories of a new open letter about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to the planet.

The letter, which was issued by the Nelson Mandela-founded group The Elders in conjunction with the Future of Life Institute, calls on global decisionmakers to “show long-view leadership on existential threats,” including “ungoverned AI” and nuclear weapons.

Charles Oppenheimer, who founded the Oppenheimer Project to continue his grandfather’s mission of tempering scientific progress with “international cooperation and unity,” was joined by hundreds of others, including British billionaire Richard Branson, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, writer and Carl Sagan widow Ann Druyan, and musician Peter Gabriel. In it, they warn that the world “is in grave danger” as we face down the perils of AI.

Feb 16, 2024

Fermi Paradox: The Impossible Earth hypothesis

Posted by in categories: computing, existential risks, life extension

The aliens haven’t contacted us because they have uploaded themselves into digital information where they live forever anf create simulated universes that they live in or they upload themselves into femto tech level computational substrates and they could surround us.


Is Earth impossible? An exploration of the impossible earth hypothesis and its implications on science and existence.

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Feb 14, 2024

The Berserker Hypothesis and the Dark Forest

Posted by in categories: existential risks, media & arts

A halloween eve exploration of two of the spookiest solutions to the Fermi Paradox. The Dark Forest Hypothesis and the Berserker Hypothesis.

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Feb 8, 2024

Asteroid Impact Near Berlin Reveals Rare Aubrite Treasures

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, chemistry, existential risks

Jenniskens’ collaborators at the Museum für Naturkunde officially announced that the first examinations of one of these pieces with an electron beam microprobe prove the typical mineralogy and chemical composition of an achondrite of the aubrite type.

The official classification now aligns with what many suspected from merely looking at the images of the strange meteorites that fell near Berlin on January 21, 2024. They belong to a rare group called “aubrites.”

“They were devilishly difficult to find because, from a distance, they look like other rocks on Earth,” said SETI Institute meteor astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens. “Close up, not so much.”

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