“Since the notion of quality, as understood by [the Swedish Research Council], is supposed to ignore practical applicability, quality as the sole selection criterion means that we value the production of new knowledge and its own right, rather than just a means towards attaining other goals. I have long been – and still am – highly sympathetic to this romantic view of knowledge and intellectual achievements. To improve our understanding of the world we live in really is one of the most magnificent and worthy the goals of human activity one can think of. And yet, it is not the only worthy goal. A bright future for humanity, where everyone has the best possible prospects of leading a happy and prosperous life, and where such things as poverty, pain and misery are reduced to a minimum, seems like another goal worth striving for, at least as important as the quest for ever-increasing knowledge.” Scientific KnowledgeIntrinsic ValueScientific ProgressExistential RiskGlobal Catastrophic RiskCatastrophic Risk Book:Here Be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of Humanity Source: Here Be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of Humanity
“We urgently need to find ways to push scientific and technological progress in directions that are likely to bring us good, and away from those directions that spell doom. This cannot be done if we stick to the erroneous view that all such progress is good for us. The first thing we need is to be able to distinguish those advances whose potential is most in the direction of prosperity and human flourishing from those whose potential is more in the direction of destruction and doom, and we need to find safe ways to handle those technologies that come with elements of both. Our ability to do so today is very limited, my ambition with this book is to draw attention to the problem, so that we can work together to improve, and avoid running blindfolded at full speed into a dangerous future.” Scientific ProgressExistential RiskGlobal Catastrophic RiskCatastrophic RiskDifferential Progress Book:Here Be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of Humanity Source: Here Be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of Humanity