https://lifeboat.com/blog/2007/01/state-of-existential-risk-in-2007 Safeguarding Humanity Mon, 17 Apr 2017 05:27:54 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2007/01/state-of-existential-risk-in-2007#comment-27 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:50:07 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=15#comment-27 Maybe this is just a catagorization question, but are natural disasters not considered existential risks? A tremendous caldera volcanic eruption, for instance, could wipe out the vast majority of humanity, or at least thrust it into a new dark age which it may never recover from. A significant asteroid or comet strike? A magnetic field reduction prior to a pole flip? Viruses and diseases absent of biotechnological meddling. Today, for instance, HIV is absorbed by the metabolism of mosquitos, if it were to mutate to not be, these flying self replicating used needles could wipe out a major portion of the global human population. As it is there are all ready some cases where the source of infection can not be determined. It is estimated that Mosquitos, the primary vector of 10 of the 12 most deadly diseases mankind can suffer from, are probably responsible for half of all human deaths throughout the history of humanity. The spanish flu came out of nowhere and killed tens of millions of people in the early 1900’s and then disappeared just as mysteriously.

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