[ExI] boomerang

[spike]

When we talk about global catastrophe, probability 0.1 - 1%, it isn't clear
how the term is defined.  How would we know if we are having a catastrophe?
Who gets to call it?

 

We think of epidemics and meteor strikes and so on, but what if a
catastrophe has a soft landing, kind of the opposite of a soft take-off
singularity?  What if faith in the world's banking system erodes until it
just doesn't work right, and a progressive poverty settles upon the planet,
in which rich people are hungry too?  We somehow accept the notion of young
poor nations being hungry, and do not classify that as a global catastrophe.
But as soon as a portion of Europeans, Americans, Japanese, (or a
significant number of people anywhere with cell phones and actual internet
connections) miss a meal or two, then is it automatically reclassified as a
global catastrophe?

 

spike

 

 

 

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