{"id":1339,"date":"2016-04-09T22:05:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T22:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2016-04-09T22:07:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T22:07:41","slug":"prospects-for-human-survival-lifeboathq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/04\/prospects-for-human-survival-lifeboathq.html","title":{"rendered":"Prospects for Human Survival (lifeboathq)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Prospects<\/p>\n

As promised, I have published my review of the Lifeboat Foundation book Prospects for Human Survival<\/a><\/em> (Willard Wells, 2015). It is more critical than the review of Visions of the Future<\/a><\/em> (also 2015).<\/h3>\n

I think it is harder to predict existential risks than the equations put forward by Wells, as I argue in the opening parts of my essay. One problem is that maths can only be useful in evaluating what you don’t know from what you do know. One\u00a0could have done a study of the gradual increase in explosive weapons, but at no point would such study have predicted the\u00a0emergence of the nuke, which was developed secretively. What Wells does not consider is the unknowns, for which there is no equation. One cannot actually predict their probability, although we can hypothesize about their possibility.<\/p>\n

Read the full review\u00a0at clubof.info<\/a> and if you so desire, get the book via Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can only apologize for not writing a longer post today but I am at the limit of what I can do in a day at this point. Tomorrow, I will find an exciting topic to write about, possibly expanding on discoveries I made in books recently.<\/p>\n

\"hjb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As promised, I have published my review of the Lifeboat Foundation book Prospects for Human Survival (Willard Wells, 2015). It is more critical than the review of Visions of the Future (also 2015). I think it is harder to predict existential risks than the equations put forward by Wells, as I argue in the opening…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,41,63,66,45,44],"tags":[1431,1371,5,557,25,1432,1433,1372],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alter-globalization","category-book","category-futurism-2","category-politics-2","category-techno-progressivism","category-transhumanism","tag-clubof-info","tag-existential-threat","tag-futurism","tag-lifeboat-foundation","tag-politics","tag-prospects-for-human-survival","tag-visions-of-the-future","tag-willard-wells"],"yoast_head":"\nProspects for Human Survival (lifeboathq) - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My review of the Lifeboat Foundation book Prospects for Human Survival is published and can be read at clubof.info.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/04\/prospects-for-human-survival-lifeboathq.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prospects for Human Survival (lifeboathq) - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My review of the Lifeboat Foundation book Prospects for Human Survival is published and can be read at clubof.info.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/04\/prospects-for-human-survival-lifeboathq.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-09T22:05:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-09T22:07:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/03\/Vortex-1024x563.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. Bentham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prospects for Human Survival (lifeboathq) - L'Ordre","description":"My review of the Lifeboat Foundation book Prospects for Human Survival is published and can be read at clubof.info.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/04\/prospects-for-human-survival-lifeboathq.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prospects for Human Survival (lifeboathq) - L'Ordre","og_description":"My review of the Lifeboat Foundation book Prospects for Human Survival is published and can be read at clubof.info.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/04\/prospects-for-human-survival-lifeboathq.html","og_site_name":"L'Ordre","article_published_time":"2016-04-09T22:05:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-04-09T22:07:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/03\/Vortex-1024x563.jpg"}],"author":"Harry J. 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