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by randmeerkat 2043 days ago
“Hawking's rationale was that humankind would eventually fall victim to an extinction-level catastrophe - perhaps sooner rather than later. What worried him were so-called low-probability, high impact events - a large asteroid striking our planet is the classic example. But Hawking perceived a host of other potential threats: artificial intelligence, climate change, GM viruses and nuclear war to name a few.

In 2016, he told the BBC: "Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or 10,000 years.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43408961

The problem with deterrence is that it works until it doesn’t.

1 comments

Yeah, and without deterrence it will be a 100% chance of a variable hell of endless wars and tens of millions of casualties.

I'll bet on no one wanting their country obliterated by agitating another nuclear power.