A comparison of LA-602, the classified report investigating the possibility of a nuclear bomb igniting the atmosphere and killing everyone, and RHIC, the document explaining why the LHC is not going to destroy the world. There is a key difference between these documents: one of them is a genuine discussion of the risks, taking them seriously, and the other is a work of public relations. Work on existential risk needs to be more like the former.
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So basically what you're say is that to avoid wiping out humanity reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. I'm surprised nobody in the original discussion brought up Feynman.
Today's post, LA-602 vs. RHIC Review was originally published on 19 June 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Ghosts in the Machine, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.