How can we save the world? (with Toby Ord)

Jul 15, 2021 1h 6m 15 insights Episode Page ↗
Guest Toby Ord discusses "The Precipice," humanity's current precarious era of escalating power and existential risks like nuclear war, engineered pandemics, and AI. He argues for urgent global prioritization to reduce these risks and achieve "existential security" for humanity's vast future.
Actionable Insights

1. Embrace Long-Term Perspective

Adopt a long-termist perspective in moral and policy decisions, seriously considering the profound and lasting impacts of current actions on future generations of humanity.

2. Prioritize Wisdom Growth

Actively work to increase collective wisdom and governance capabilities at a pace that matches or exceeds technological advancement to prevent global catastrophe.

3. Reduce Existential Risk Probabilities

Actively work to reduce the per-unit-time probability of existential catastrophes, aiming for consistently declining or extremely low rates to ensure humanity’s long-term survival.

4. Rapidly Lower Existential Risk

Prioritize and implement strategies to reduce existential risk as quickly as possible, as current levels are unsustainable for long-term survival.

5. Achieve Existential Security

Work towards a state of “existential security” by making global risk reduction a top priority, establishing robust institutions, and developing norms to maintain low levels of existential risk permanently.

6. Address Urgent Existential Risks

Recognize the immediate urgency of addressing existential risks that could materialize within the next few decades, as failure to act now means no future generation will have the opportunity to do so.

7. Navigate Dangerous Era Safely

Dedicate a substantial portion of humanity’s collective effort and focus to navigating the current dangerous period, aiming to survive and overcome present existential threats.

8. Prioritize Existential Risk Reduction

For those adopting a long-termist ethical perspective, the most effective current approach is to focus on reducing existential risks until this area is thoroughly addressed and resourced.

9. Increase Existential Risk Funding

Increase global spending on existential risk reduction to at least match the amount spent on ice cream annually, as current allocations are disproportionately low given the stakes.

10. Invest in Risk Research

Direct funding towards building research communities and enhancing the academic credibility of existential risk studies, as this area is currently under-researched and under-resourced.

11. Prevent Great Power War

Prioritize efforts to avoid great power wars, as the risk of such conflicts significantly increases overall existential risk, potentially more than many individual specific threats.

12. Accelerate Protective Technologies

Prioritize and accelerate the development of defensive or protective technologies to mitigate risks and enhance global security before dangerous technologies proliferate.

13. Identify Defensive Technologies

Apply a “reading vs. writing” or “information gathering vs. action” lens across various technological fields to identify and prioritize the development of protective and defensive technologies over those that heighten aggressive powers.

14. Advance Metagenomic Sequencing

Invest in and accelerate the development and deployment of metagenomic sequencing technology, which can rapidly identify unknown pathogens and serve as a powerful defense against engineered pandemics and bioweapons.

15. Focus on Existential Risk

When addressing existential risk, narrow your focus specifically on threats that permanently destroy humanity’s long-term potential, rather than broadly addressing all forms of unmitigated disasters, to make effective progress.