Talking Politics

David talks to Martin Rees about how we should evaluate the greatest threats facing the human species in the twenty-first century. Does the biggest danger come from bio-terror or bio-error, climate change, nuclear war or AI? And what prospects does space travel provide for a post-human future?Talking Points:Existential risk is risk that cascades globally and is a severe setback to civilization. We are now so interconnected and so empowered as a species that humans could be responsible for this kind of destruction.There are natural existential risks too, such as asteroids. But what is concerning about the present moment is that humans have the ability to affect the entire biosphere.This is a story about technology, but it’s also about global population growth and the depletion of resources.There are four categories of existential risk: climate change, bioterror/bioerror, nuclear weapons, and AI/new technology.Climate Change has a long tail, meaning that the risk of total catastrophe is