"Would it not be wildly irresponsible, they ask, to expose our entire species to even a 1-in-10 chance of annihilation?"
I have bad news about how decision makers have responded to risks about nuclear weapons and climate change in the past. During the development of the bomb, it was thought that the initial test had a small but plausible, at least to some but not all scientists, chance of igniting the atmosphere on fire in a chain reaction. It was thought that threatening and destroying enemies was worth the risk.
Let us not speak of the risks of MAD (for a treat, watch the British movie "Threads") and the tipping points of climate catastrophe which consistently appear to be worse than the IPCC reports with new surprises every few years.
Of course, no such risk is worth taking to the average person. It only makes sense in an extremely narrow hypercompetitive viewpoint held by elites and dumb dumbs.
I have bad news about how decision makers have responded to risks about nuclear weapons and climate change in the past. During the development of the bomb, it was thought that the initial test had a small but plausible, at least to some but not all scientists, chance of igniting the atmosphere on fire in a chain reaction. It was thought that threatening and destroying enemies was worth the risk.
Let us not speak of the risks of MAD (for a treat, watch the British movie "Threads") and the tipping points of climate catastrophe which consistently appear to be worse than the IPCC reports with new surprises every few years.
Of course, no such risk is worth taking to the average person. It only makes sense in an extremely narrow hypercompetitive viewpoint held by elites and dumb dumbs.