Mike Scialom > Recent Status Updates

*Typo on page 79: to "ensure against disaster" (should be "insure").
*"Nuclear weapons began the age of existential risk but they no longer define it. We might put one genie back in the bottle. We won't put them all back" - page 104 (other existential risks = AI & climate breakdown)
* Derek Parfit's 3 scenarios: 1. All humans die; 2. 99% of humans die & 3. No humans die. 1 is nuclear war. 2 is climate change p100

A stunning, stunning read as close to genius as you're going to get this side of Leonardo da Vinci or Marcel Prostate.

It's total cak. Sure you can say Steve Jobs was a freak, even Bill Gates was an outsider entrepreneur when he started off. But other weirdos include Stalin and Kissinger, and once you open the gate to this kind of thinking ... it's impossible to retro-fit ethical thinking into the schemes these dudes - and we are talking about an exclusively male set of world dominators - are coming up with. Plus - it's badly written

This is quite an incredible book - it shows how economics can emerge from its current smoke-and-mirrors bluster to become a science. How important could that be!?

The society we live in today was built on an extended period of growth which resulted from the development of surplus energy resources 250 years ago. Those resources are now depleting and, instead of confronting the problems this poses, humanity has chosen denial. The longer this goes on the worse the consequences will be. A massively illuminating wake-up call from a very bright Cambridge-educated author.