It's the end of the world as we know it

[ciphergoth]

The technical term for a risk that could destroy the whole future of humanity is an "existential risk".

Wikipedia on existential risk

Nick Bostrom: "Our approach to existential risks cannot be one of trial-and-error. There is no opportunity to learn from errors."

Eliezer Yudkowsky, Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks [PDF]

Google search

Do you worry about the end of the world?

Comments

[emanix.livejournal.com]

*Sigh* I just re-read the whole comment thread, it would have probably been far quicker if I'd just pointed at purplerabbits's comment (up here (http://ciphergoth.livejournal.com/355932.html?thread=3719260#t3719260)) and said 'what she said'.

Import of thought experiment fully understood, but it was still irrelevant to what I was trying to say. I'd love to hear how you manage to imagine not existing, though.

Also, I don't 'recognise' that the end of humanity is bad, since 'bad' is a value judgement and not a statement of fact. I don't believe there is any universal truth that says death = bad, but in my personal opinion, it is.

(BTW cryonics people agree that death is irreversible, they just don't agree that legal death is death by that definition)
Useful to know. Thankyou.