[philwelch]

I'm not talking about western style poor, I'm talking about post-nuclear war style dead, or post-nanotech style grey goo that used to be people. That's why I said "existential threat" (i.e. threats to our existence), not "existential angst".

I don't disagree that science is a net win, but there's some chance that we will use science to extinct the human race or make the earth uninhabitable, in the long run.

[Retric]

Post-nuclear war there would still be more people than before science. We don't have grey goo so suggesting it's an issue is probably overblown.

PS: Killing off 99.5% of the world's population would be really hard, and there would still be more people alive than before science.