josh0 comments on Existential Risk and Public Relations - Less Wrong
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I think largish fraction of the population have worries about human extinction / the end of the world. Very few associate this with the phrase "existential risk" -- I for one had never heard the term until after I had started reading about the technological singularity and related ideas. Perhaps rebranding of a sort would help you further the cause. Ditto for FAI - I think 'Ethical Artficial Intelligence' would get the idea across well enough and might sound less flakey to certain audiences.
It may be true that many are worried about 'the end of the world', however consider how many of them think that it was predicted by the Mayan calandar to occur on Dec. 21 2012, and how many actively want it to happen because they believe it will herald the coming of God's Kingdom on Earth, Olam Haba, or whatever.
We could rebrand 'existential risk' as 'end time' and gain vast numbers of followers. But I doubt that would actually be desirable.
I do think that Ethical Artificial Intelligence would strike a better chord with most than Friendly, though. 'Friendly' does sound a bit unserious.