[ExI] How vulnerable is the world?

[Dave Sill]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 10:10 AM BillK via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> [Former list member Nick Bostrom wrote:]
> What we haven’t pulled out yet is a black ball: a technology that
> invariably destroys the civilisation that invents it. That’s not
> because we’ve been particularly careful or wise when it comes to
> innovation. We’ve just been lucky.
>

How does Bostrom know that these "black balls" exist? Sure, there are
technologies capable of destroying civilizations. But technologies that
unavoidably destroy all civilizations? Maybe they exist, but how could he
know? How could he know that all the technologies we've deployed so far are
not black balls?

-Dave
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