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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat<br><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] new term<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>>…<span style='color:black'>Geez - sapiosexual was just a little joke (though it was used in a book I read - also tongue in cheek.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>…<span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>>…<span style='color:black'>Loosen up out there! bill </span>w<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Nevah gonna happen Billw. People seem to be a bit on edge these days. I can’t understand why. Perhaps because we are suddenly facing three simultaneous existential risks to humanity, I don’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Here's a fun mental exercise however (if we define “fun” very broadly.) Rank the biggest threats to humanity and culture by one’s own reasoning. For instance:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Planet-busting virus: with Covid-19, the whole world was introduced to the notion that lethal viruses could be evolved by selective breeding. We know there are people in this world with radical green notions, such as humans are a cancer on the planet, and it would be a good thing if most of us perished. Oy freaking vey. We now have access to a virus with the furin cleavage sites already optimized for being contagious to humans. Any yahoo can get a bunch of bats and start breeding it up to be worse than it is. Shit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Nuclear warfare: never thought I would see that one pushed way back into distant second, did we? All those damn missiles are still there, and they are still loaded. We have had them as long as I have been on this planet however, and we managed to not nuke ourselves, so I am optimistically placing that lower in risk.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>AGI killing everyone: I would put that down in third, well down the risk scale for wiping out humanity. It could do some really bad things to modern civilization perhaps, by taking down the power grid and communications grid. Society cannot operate without those. For starters, all trade comes to an abrupt halt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Other thoughts?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Note that none of those three destroy all of humanity. In all three scenarios, worst case even, much of Africa mostly goes on about its business scarcely knowing anything really bad happened.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>