MichaelBishop comments on Why safety is not safe - Less Wrong

48 Post author: rwallace 14 June 2009 05:20AM

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Comment author: MichaelBishop 15 June 2009 05:51:42PM 1 point [-]

I feel that in this argument, the onus is on you to provide evidence that most people are ignoring a serious risk.

I don't have a good way of assigning probabilities either, but I feel obliged to try.

I estimate the probability that scarcity of natural resources leads to a fifty percent decline in real GDP per capita in many wealthy countries in the next fifty years is less than one percent.

Conditional on my being wrong, I would be very confused about the world, but at this point would still assign less than a five percent risk of large scale nuclear war between major powers which are both aware there is a very high risk of mutual destruction.

I don't think I'm looking at the world through rose colored glasses. I think the risk of small scale nuclear conflict, or threats such as the use of a bioengineered virus by terrorists, is much greater.

Comment deleted 15 June 2009 07:36:50PM [-]
Comment author: MichaelBishop 15 June 2009 07:55:53PM 0 points [-]

I haven't earned a great deal of authority on these topics. I am a phd student in sociology who reads a lot of economics. As far as I can tell, economists don't seem to think we should worry that scarcity of natural resources could lead to such major economic problems. I'd be interested to know what the market "thinks." What investment strategy would profit in such a scenario?