A reminder for everyone: on this day in 1983, Stanislav Petrov saved the world.
It occurs to me this time around that there's an interesting relationship here - 9/26 is forgotten, while 9/11 is remembered. Do something charitable, and not patriotic, sometime today.
He mentions it www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html. I think he has mentioned before that this is an aspect of existential risk that should be more closely evaluated and I think he's briefly talked about it in other locations but I don't have a citation.
Re: Aluminum, yes true, but don't underestimate the helpfulness of having a really light and strong metal. Much of modern technology depends on that. And aluminum isn't the only example of such a substance which will be easier to work with now that it has been refined. Titanium falls into a similar category. Both of them can be worked with at temperatures one can reach using coal.
I ask because a lot of that modern technology seems predicated on cheap oil and all its derivatives like plastic or lubricants etc., such that aluminum is only a small benefit and nowhere even close to a bit of oil.
What's the signal use of aluminum? Airplanes, but how are you going to economically power aluminum-built airplanes? Or skyscapers - but what's the point of such dense expensive buildings if you a... (read more)