Today, I explored a chapter from the Introduction to Effective Altruism Handbook as part of my AI safety and governance studies. Below is the resource I reviewed.
Resource: Our Final Century?
- Source: Our Final Century?, Effective Altruism Forum, Chapter 4 of the Introduction to Effective Altruism Handbook.
- Summary: This chapter examines existential risks that could destroy humanity’s long-term potential, emphasizing their moral priority and societal neglect. It focuses on risks like human-made pandemics worse than COVID-19 and discusses strategies for improving biosecurity to prevent catastrophic outcomes. The chapter introduces the concept of “expected value” to evaluate the impact of interventions and explores “hits-based giving,” where high-risk, high-reward approaches are prioritized. It also highlights the importance of identifying crucial considerations to avoid missing key factors that could undermine impact.