How Civilization could destroy itself according to Nick Bostrom. This Ted talk is a very intersting thought experiment.

in #blog4 years ago (edited)

I listened to this TED talk that thought was very interesting... Also, what a great opportunity to put all kinds of apocalypic GIFs.

In this video Nick Bostrom talks about THE VULNERABLE WORLD HYPOTHESIS

There are so many strange GIFs under keyword "Nuke". Like this one. WTH?!

Nick's hypothesis starts by imagining a container, or urn as he calls it, with black, white, and grey balls.

He considers the black balls are "CATASTRPHIC EVENTS", and that the human race has still not pulled out a black ball from the urn. (And thank God for that).

VULNERABILITY TYPE 1 : Democratization of Mass Destruction.

Basically saying NUKES can destroy our cilivilization!!!

VULNERABILITY TYPE 2A : Bad Incentives for Powerful Actors

Basically just like the Joker said, "Some people just want to watch the world burn".

VULNERABILITY TYPE 2B : Bad Incentives for the Masses

Basically saying we could destroy it ourselves if left unsupervised.
Like for example how human race is cutting all of the trees in the Amazonian forest.

He proposes are few solutions and they are:

RESPONSE 1 : Restrict Tech Development

Basically saying we could theoretically slow down that pace of progress. Humans can't build Terminators if they stop all research and development in AI right now. (Not gonna happen)

RESPONSE 2 : Eliminate Bad Actors


Basically saying if the "bad guys" are killed before they trigger an event of mass destruction then civilization is safe. (It happens all the time. USMC Black Ops. Hoorah! )

RESPONSE 3 : Mass Surveillance


Basically saying if everyone is put under surveillance at all times then a bad actor can be identified and stopped pre-emptively. (Already happening accoring to Edward Snowden).
Also, just like in the movie, Minority Report, or the TV show, Person of Interest (Its my favorite TV show).

Anyways, I hope my GIFs made this TED talk more interesting.
Here's the video. Listen to it because it is interesting.

Also, looking fwd to thecastle's thoughts on this.
Thanks for reading y'all.
bye