[ExI] "If this isn't terrifying, I don't know what is..." -Dr. David Suzuki

Anders Sandberg anders at aleph.se
Wed Nov 6 13:55:59 UTC 2013


On 06/11/2013 09:55, John Grigg wrote:
> Can the situation in Japan really be this potentially nightmarish?!!!  
> Doctor David Suzuki declares...
>
>
>           "I have seen a paper which says that if in fact the fourth
>           plant goes under in an earthquake and those rods are
>           exposed, it's bye bye Japan and everybody on the west coast
>           of North America should evacuate,"
>

Sounds like he is not applying much critical thinking here. Compare to 
Chernobyl, which was about as bad as it can possibly get: yes, 
measurable contamination over vast areas, but actual harms still very 
debatable, and an exclusion zone that is pretty tiny.

The problem with exaggerating in order to get people to take an 
important problem seriously is that it both breeds fatalism (consider 
nuclear armageddon), and when you are found out you undermine taking the 
problem seriously because now claims the risks were exaggerated have a 
good factual basis.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University

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