All of PhilC's Comments + Replies
DNA banks and backup of Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Biorisk and Recovery from Catastrophe
Arguably, the most important information that the world has generated is the diversity of codes for life. Technologies are available to allow all these to be stored quickly and at low cost in DNA banks. Seed banks currently provide security for the world’s food supply. In the event of a catastrophe, it may be important to have multiple seed banks for redundancy.
Research to solve global coordination problems
Epistemic Institutions, Values and Reflective Processes
In Scott Alexander's Meditations on Moloch, Scott argues that a number of humanity's major problems (corruption, environmental extraction, arms races, existential risks from emerging technologies, etc) occur because agents are unable to coordinate for a positive global outcome. Our current major coordination mechanisms of free markets, international institutions and democracy are inadequate to solve this problem. Research needs to be done to design better c...
Backup communication systems
Biorisk and Recovery from Catastrophe
In the event of GCRs, conflicts or disasters, communication systems are key to sensemake and coordinate effectively. They prevent chaos and further escalation of conflicts. Today, there are many threats to the global communication infrastucutre including EMPs, widespread cyber attacks, and solar flares.
Secure full-stack open-source computing for information security
Artificial Intelligence, Biorisk, Research that will help us improve
Much of our sensitive research and weaponry, like AI, biolabs, nuclear weapons, etc, are built upon insecure infrastructure. Think of a scenario in the future where one hacker could hack and control fleets of self-driving cars and essentially have a swarm of missiles. Real information security would need to build the full stack of computing from the hardware, OS, compilers, to application layers. It would also ideally be open-source and inspectable to ensure security.
Good question. It is likely fairer to say that risks are sometimes accounted for by increasing the discount rate, but how they come up with the discount rate is fairly qualitative.
Good catch. Investors care about return vs risk. It also allows them to diversify and have lower risk / higher returns for their portfolio.
Appreciate ALLFED's work. I'm curious what ALLFED is seeing and doing about the cascading risks to global grain and fertiliser supplies that you mentioned.