[ExI] What are among the world's most important problems to solve, why?

[Anders]

On 2016-07-09 17:25, William Flynn Wallace wrote:
>
> 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.

No, I am arguing that important problems may still be deferred to later. 
Fixing the sun's expansion into a red giant is important, but it would 
be stupid to reallocate resources used for pandemic readiness today into 
solving it.

> 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.

Figuring out where one should be going before spending effort going 
forward is rational. In a car it might not be too costly to drive a few 
miles wrong and maybe time is precious, but given the nonzero danger of 
driving fast in unknown areas at night your friend probably made a bad 
cost/benefit calculation.

The more costly mistakes or wasted effort (typically because of 
opportunity costs) are, the more effort it is rational to put into 
planning where one should go.

-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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