Confronting Existential Risks
A Framework For Prioritizing Existential Problems
“I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.” — Elon Musk
Food For Thought
Confronting Existential Risks
Entropy is the natural inclination for things to lose order or become more unpredictable over time. It is a call for all things to fall back into their most basic components, and it is an underlying force of the universe. Because social, environmental, and physical entropy surrounds us, it’s easy to believe that the world is slowly slipping toward chaos.
But how slowly? And what exactly does ‘chaos’ look like?
In today’s newsletter, we are going to jump out of our comfort zones and dive straight into the deep end. Today, we are talking about confronting existential risks.
With things like the fungal superbug outbreak, talk of colonizing Mars, global warming dominating public discussion, and the ever-present threat of nuclear holocaust… it’s easy to fall into a trap of fear of the future.
The world really is headed for chaos, right?
It might be, but not in the unstoppable ways that we tend to worry about.
It’s not one single, scary, catastrophic event we should fear the most; it’s the infinite little decisions we make every day that can inhibit growth or derail cognitive and physical evolution.
Are there doomsday scenarios we must prepare for and consider? Yes. But we can’t be so blinded by fear of those unlikely events that we don’t see the daily catastrophes happening all around us — things like human trafficking, animal and environmental abuse, poverty, resource waste… etc.
You can let these thoughts cripple you. You can choose to ignore them all. Or you can put in the work to prioritize these existential risks and act to remedy situations where you can.
Sometimes that means falling into the abyss, being scared, questioning everything, and then climbing back out of that cave to become a more well-rounded, self-aware person ready for a change.
On Mission Daily, we were recently joined by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Geoffrey Miller who shared a framework for prioritizing concern for existential problems:
First, determine how big the problem is. How many people will this impact? What are the worldwide consequences of this risk?
Second, determine if you can actually do anything about it. How many ways are there to solve it? If you can’t solve it (for example, there’s currently no way for us to stop a supernova from wiping out the planet), then it’s not worth the emotional energy to worry about it.
Third, find out how many people are already working on the problem. Do we need more effort or attention devoted to it? If it is already receiving a decent amount of public resources (for example, global warming), your time and energy might be better spent promoting a separate issue that needs more attention.
These three questions — How big is the problem?, Can you solve it?, and How many people are working on solving it? — will empower you to find a place where you can fight the issues that really matter.
We share these ideas not to incite fear, but instead to encourage thought. If we don’t face existential risks head-on, they will no longer be risks and soon will become our realities.
To listen to our full interview with Dr. Miller, and to learn more about effective altruism and confronting risks, go here.
More With Geoffrey
A Deep Dive Into Evolutionary Psychology
To learn more about Dr. Miller’s work on evolutionary psychology, relationships, and sexuality, check out his interview on The Rubin Report.
(Still not sure what evolutionary psychology is? Here’s an overview.)
#WhatWeAreReading
The Doomsday Machine
“Yet what seems to me beyond question is that any social system (not only ours) that has created and maintained a Doomsday Machine and has put a trigger to it, including first use of nuclear weapons, in the hands of one human being — anyone, not just this man, still worse in the hands of an unknown number of persons — is in core aspects mad. Ours is such a system. We are in the grip of institutionalized madness.” ― Daniel Ellsberg
Dr. Miller recommended we check this one out, so we’ve added it to our reading list. You should, too. 😏
Read: The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg
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This was originally published on April 9, 2019 as The Mission’s daily newsletter. To subscribe, go here.
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