You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

eli_sennesh comments on Open thread, Aug. 03 - Aug. 09, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: MrMind 03 August 2015 07:05AM

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

Comments (177)

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

Comment author: G0W51 07 August 2015 09:09:30AM 4 points [-]

I have heard (from the book Global Catastrophic Risks) that life extension could increase existential risk by giving oppressive regimes increased stability by decreasing how frequently they would need to select successors. However, I think it may also decrease existential risk by giving people a greater incentive to care about the far future (because they could be in it). What are your thoughts on the net effect of life extension?

Comment author: [deleted] 10 August 2015 03:30:49AM -2 points [-]

Is there anything that can't somehow be spun into increasing existential risk? The biggest existential risk is being alive at all in the first place.

Comment author: G0W51 10 August 2015 04:07:47AM 0 points [-]

Yes, but I'm looking to see if it increases existential risk more than it decreases it, and if the increase is significant.