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lavalamp comments on Q&A with Richard Carrier on risks from AI - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: XiXiDu 13 December 2011 10:00AM

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Comment author: lavalamp 13 December 2011 11:06:38PM 5 points [-]

All existential risks are of such vastly low probability

I... really don't see how this can be justified.

Comment author: ciphergoth 13 December 2011 11:30:52PM 4 points [-]

It is extraordinary. Even if you set aside the kinds of existential risks we tend to discuss here, several experts on climate change (eg James Hansen) consider runaway global warming sufficient to destroy all life on Earth a real risk.

Comment author: timtyler 14 December 2011 10:43:15PM 2 points [-]

Climate gurus often get funding by being alarmist, though. Thay want to get paid so they can save the world - but first the world must be at risk. Thus all the climate scaremongering. It's a real problem.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 16 December 2011 05:38:12PM 1 point [-]

If they don't really believe that the world is at risk, why aren't they getting paid more doing something else?

Comment author: timtyler 16 December 2011 06:34:57PM *  0 points [-]

I didn't mean to suggest that they don't believe in what they are saying.

As far as I understand the phenomenon, DOOM-sayers are normally perfectly sincere.

Check out the The End of The World Cult for example. The prophets of DOOM are not kidding.