
The Precipice
Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
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Narrated by:
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Toby Ord
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By:
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Toby Ord
This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time.
If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Our species could survive for billions of years - enough time to end disease, poverty, and injustice, and to flourish in ways unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. With the advent of nuclear weapons, humanity entered a new age, where we face existential catastrophes - those from which we could never come back. Since then, these dangers have only multiplied, from climate change to engineered pathogens and artificial intelligence. If we do not act fast to reach a place of safety, it will soon be too late.
Drawing on over a decade of research, The Precipice explores the cutting-edge science behind the risks we face. It puts them in the context of the greater story of humanity: showing how ending these risks is among the most pressing moral issues of our time. And it points the way forward, to the actions and strategies that can safeguard humanity.
An Oxford philosopher committed to putting ideas into action, Toby Ord has advised the US National Intelligence Council, the UK Prime Minister's Office, and the World Bank on the biggest questions facing humanity. In The Precipice, he offers a startling reassessment of human history, the future we are failing to protect, and the steps we must take to ensure that our generation is not the last.
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A must listen!
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Good summary of long-term risks
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Extremely important and impactful
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Future of hamanity
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Regardless of the source of our possible demise, mankind is in the unique position to understand, to act, or to stick our heads in the proverbial sand and hope the Big Scary just goes away... Which is unlikely.
Toby Ord was at least prescient and cognizant enough of humanity's precarious position on the precipice of complete annihilation to analyze the statistical probability of each way we could feasibly kill ourselves off. I don't want to give it away, but let's just say his estimate of this probability in the next 100 years is astonishing... And dreadful.
So, you should read this book. If you have children or want to, read this book. If you merely care about mankind's future, read this book. Then take what you learn and put some effort towards preventing these contingencies. Please.
Outstanding book on a critical topic
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Rquired reading for all citizens of the cosmos!
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Excellent
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Existential risk and exponential opportunity
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Excellent considerations
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Ord will make you reevaluate what the future means and how you view the world in which you live. Personally, reading this book made me switch careers and gift this book to three others — all within just the first couple months after finishing.
Read “The Precipice.” It is — honestly — my favorite book.
Brilliant book, brilliant subject, brilliant author
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