046 We are the biggest threat to humanity!
046 We are the biggest threat to humanity!
Hello!
Here's the weekly Amazing Things & Ideas newsletter. Find one original idea from my side followed by the Amazing Things & Ideas List.
We are the biggest threat to humanity!
Pictures of mass destruction and devastation caused by nuclear bombs might flash in mind when you read the title to this newsletter. But that (pessimistic thought) is not the only reason I say we’re the biggest threat to our intelligent species’ civilization.
What I’m trying to get at when I say we’re the biggest threat is revealing our utmost agency in the survival of human civilization. Let me explain.
Now, if something happens and a full scale nuclear war breaks out and destroys all of humanity—most people would agree that it was the people’s fault. (Sure, some may say that it was due to some evil people that this happened but largely it was OUR fault and human activity that led to our doom.)
But what I argue is that human inactivity can also lead to our doom and that too would be our fault.
A catastrophic natural disaster is a good example for this. Let’s take an asteroid that impacts the Earth and results in an existential catastrophe. Nobody predicted the asteroid to strike. We weren’t ready for such an attack. Is it right to say, “Well, this was entirely out of our control and we could not do anything about it since we couldn’t know anything about it prior to its happening.”?
No. We could know about it. But we didn’t. And that’s okay. In this infinite pool of knowledge, we possibly cannot know EVERYTHING. But does that decrease our agency, our accountability to keep the flame of our species alive? I think not.
That asteroid impact that wiped out all humans—that’s entirely on us. It is our moral duty to keep making progress and creating knowledge through explanations about the world. If we fail to do so, human survival faces a risk.
Hence, in either way I think humanity (directly or indirectly) is the greatest threat to itself. In an optimistic manner, I say this is, as it allows for a sense of agency to be present among people to willingly progress toward a better and more improved civilization in the face of all natural risks. (Thus the exclamation in the title.)
Inaction is as great a threat to humanity as evil action is.
The Amazing Things & Ideas List
Book on existential risk to humanity:
The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord
This book has some fascinatingly inspiring ideas about the long-term future of humanity and our moral duty to safeguard it.
Unwittingly compelled to certain societal ideas:
“As a child, my wife hated her school and wished she could leave. Years later, when she was in her twenties, she disclosed this unhappy fact to her parents, and her mother was aghast: ‘But darling, why didn't you come to us and tell us?’ She replied: ‘But I didn't know I could.’”
— Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Preface to the first edition)
The consequence of discovering ideas closer to the truth:
“Since there is only one truth of any given matter, as we discover ideas closer to the truth our ideas become closer to each other’s, so we agree more. People who converge upon the truth converge with each other.”
— David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity
A post from my blog this week:
“A critique to school debates”
I was in the audience of my school debate last week. A two hour experience that made me ponder on the extent to which school debates are meaningless. I suggest a better and complete alternative to debates in this post.
If you liked this newsletter, I encourage you to share it for others to see it too.
If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or criticisms, I'd love to hear them from you; please write to me by replying to this email or DM me on Twitter.
Thank you for reading.
Onward,
Arjun