AllanCrossman comments on This Failing Earth - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 24 May 2009 04:09PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (158)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: AllanCrossman 25 May 2009 04:55:02PM 1 point [-]

The difference between then and now is that today, there are actually plausible ways it could happen.

Comment author: timtyler 25 May 2009 05:52:32PM *  5 points [-]

I was wondering why p(doom) has apparently been so consistently overestimated. Perhaps another possible reason is attention-seeking. When Martin Rees mentioned a probability of 0.5 on p.8 of "Our Final Century", people paid attention. Politicians are in on the act as well - check out Al Gore. Doom sells. Perhaps scaring people shitless is simply good marketing.