#112 Classic episode – Carl Shulman on the common-sense case for existential risk work and its practical implications

<p>Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in October 2021.</p><p>Preventing the apocalypse may sound like an idiosyncratic activity, and it sometimes is justified on exotic grounds, such as the potential for humanity to become a galaxy-spanning civilisation.</p><p>But the policy of US government agencies is already to spend up to $4 million to save the life of a citizen, making the death of all Americans a $1,300,000,000,000,000 disaster.</p><p>According to Carl Shulman, research associate at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, that means you don’t need any fancy philosophical arguments about the value or size...