<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">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</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">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. .</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">I will read your link before answering further.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">I sketch out some ways to select problems right in this little essay, with some medicine-related examples in the final section:</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><a href="http://www.aleph.se/presentations/What%20questions.pdf" target="_blank" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">http://www.aleph.se/presentations/What%20questions.pdf</a> anders<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">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.)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">I, for one, would like to hear what you have to say about the Brexit, and why it disturbs you.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">bill w</span></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jul 9, 2016 at 9:08 AM, Anders Sandberg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:anders@aleph.se" target="_blank">anders@aleph.se</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span class="">
<div>On 2016-07-09 14:45, William Flynn
Wallace wrote:<br>
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<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div class="gmail_default">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. <br>
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</blockquote>
<br></span>
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. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
I sketch out some ways to select problems right in this little
essay, with some medicine-related examples in the final section:<br>
<a href="http://www.aleph.se/presentations/What%20questions.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aleph.se/presentations/What%20questions.pdf</a><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
</pre>
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