A blog focused on protecting humanity against biological threats and exploring the offense/defense balance of the physical world
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.
How fast can an AI-driven economy grow? Economists expect a few percentage points; at best those closer to AI development imagine Dyson spheres within years. Who is correct?
I thought I'd document how I'm currently using AI tools, both because it's changed a lot in the past month and also in the hope that someone can look at this, be horrified, and tell me all the things I'm doing that could be better.
Whole brain emulation gets suggested as a potential AI-safety lever. Here we investigate two questions: when could we get it relative to superintelligence, and would it matter if we did?
Discussions of built-environment pandemic defense tend to treat far-UVC as the standout technology and air filtration as an afterthought. I think this gets the ranking wrong.
