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John_Maxwell_IV comments on Generalizing from One Trend - Less Wrong Discussion

14 Post author: katydee 18 January 2013 01:21AM

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Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 19 January 2013 11:43:43AM 0 points [-]

I do think the "Civilization's rainy-day money" idea is a good one in principle but I fear it would be expended on tragic but non-existential threats (like the latest big earthquake/hurricane/tsunami) rather than saved for existential risks.

I'm suggesting this as something for LW users to do.

Further, in the event that an existential risk did become apparent I am not sure that having "rainy-day money" would really enhance our response, simply in that we might not have enough time to spend the money on useful projects.

Yeah, some degree of forecasting is probably a good idea.

Comment author: katydee 19 January 2013 12:00:44PM *  0 points [-]

I'm suggesting this as something for LW users to do.

I know, but I don't have a huge degree of confidence in this gathering enough funds in order to be meaningful if it were LW-users only; to scale up to the level where it would be able to actually influence these risks substantially I think it would have to draw in money (and hence influence) from outsiders.

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