[ExI] Existential Risks might be underestimated

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2015 10:49 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] Existential Risks might be underestimated

 

​ More is not better…

 >>…Agreed.  I just don’t see a clear path to prevent it…spike

>…One thing give me some hope:  as a group/nation/country gets more and more food and medical care the birth rate goes down.  Solid fact.  Didn't it go negative in Japan awhile back?

Ja, but the argument can be made that Japanese culture is doomed.

>…If we could just share some of our wealth to provide those things to the 3rd world…

We do already.

>… we could stop the destruction of habitat…

For the most part, all our efforts to stop habitat destruction have failed.  At best it’s a mixed success.

>… and not wind up with all of our creatures bigger than squirrel in a few million acres of zoos.  Not to mention the rain forests etc.

BillW if you know of a way to save the rain forests, you will be a hero sir.

>…Superstition:  if we give them more food, more of them will breed, more of them will live, and we will have more kids, not fewer…

Indeed.  Do you offer evidence the above notion is superstition, or just assume it so?  

You are aware there are currently plenty of human groups whose populations are held in check by space limitations and food limitations.  We know there are efforts to bring them food and introduce birth control technology.  They are grateful for the former but want no part of the latter (at least some subset within the group wants no part of the latter.)  This shouldn’t surprise us: we in the advanced west have subsets of our population who reject the notion of birth control, still to this day.  They have a lot of offspring.  And they vote.

spike

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20150528/626aff5a/attachment.html>