Surviving an environment-to-human pathogen would require widespread protection from airborne exposure, indoors and out. We think this may be achievable using improvised bioshelters and PPE made from household materials, though this hypothesis still needs more testing.
Pathogens that replicate in the environment and transmit to humans pose a uniquely direct existential risk, far more so than those that spread person-to-person or can't grow outside a host. Of the possible exposure routes, airborne transmission is by far the hardest to defend against.
A misaligned AI or human-AI group could attempt takeover by releasing a highly transmissible engineered pathogen. I discuss what a PPE strategy aimed at this threat model needs to get right.
I evaluate whether non-agricultural food technologies could be scaled up fast enough to feed humanity if there was an extreme attack on the crop production.
