Big Problems

I just finished a wild book: The Precipice by Toby Ord. Ord is a statistician and a moral philosopher at Oxford. The book starts with a question “What are the most pressing problems to work on?”. It proceeds through a methodical assessment of the problems facing humanity — where are the biggest risks to humanity?

He defines “existential risk” as anything that would obliterate humanity’s ability to achieve its full potential — not necessarily extinction. He also assesses our ability to meet these risks and progress to date. All of it is very well-researched (hundreds of pages of footnotes) and very careful.