[ExI] What are among the world's most important problems to solve, why?

[William Flynn Wallace]

Gender equality, world hunger, and avoiding extinction-level nuclear war
are all important. But if you fail at solving the last one having found
solutions to the other two is pretty moot.   anders

You are not suggesting that we stop working on the first two, eh?  Perhaps
you are addressing the problem of limited resources and where to put your
efforts first.  Very unfortunately, that is left in the hands of
politicians all too often, who are influenced by Big Banks, Big Industry,
and so on.  Plutocracy.  .

I will read your link before answering further.

I sketch out some ways to select problems right in this little essay, with
some medicine-related examples in the final section:
http://www.aleph.se/presentations/What%20questions.pdf  anders

A good article.  However, it does not explain the apparent paradox of
labeling a problem 'important' and then saying it does not deserve to be
solved.  (Now you will say that I am arguing semantics again, and I will
agree with that.  Wrong words are confusing.)

Once I woke up in a car, after overindulging in beer, and found that we
were going very fast down a lonely road.  So I asked and he said that he
was lost, and that his theory was to go as fast as he can so that he will
find out sooner if he is going the wrong way.  Fits right in to your
article.  I did solve the problem by looking out the windows, seeing the
Big Dipper in the back window, and telling the driver that we were going
South - which was wrong.

I, for one, would like to hear what you have to say about the Brexit, and
why it disturbs you.

bill w

On Sat, Jul 9, 2016 at 9:08 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> On 2016-07-09 14:45, William Flynn Wallace wrote:
>
> ​Yes, there is a difference between a puzzle and a problem, but where are
> the guidelines here?  Why not solve all important problems?  ???  If they
> weren't interfering with the human race they would not be called
> important.  Some explication is needed here.
>
>
> Gender equality, world hunger, and avoiding extinction-level nuclear war
> are all important. But if you fail at solving the last one having found
> solutions to the other two is pretty moot.
>
> Xrisks are special because they cut off all the good of the future, so
> stopping them early has a great deal of value. Some problems have
> multiplicative effects on other things: deworming in subsaharan Africa does
> not just making kids healthier, but also improves school results and
> intelligence, which in turn boosts the economy. Fixing ageing fixes a host
> of other chronic diseases plus boosts human capital. Meta-problems are
> often under-researched, elastic and useful to solve early.
>
> I sketch out some ways to select problems right in this little essay, with
> some medicine-related examples in the final section:
> http://www.aleph.se/presentations/What%20questions.pdf
>
> --
> Dr Anders Sandberg
> Future of Humanity Institute
> Oxford Martin School
> Oxford University
>
>
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>
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