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Archive for the ‘existential risks’ category

Nov 16, 2024

An Asteroid Hit Earth Just Hours After Being Detected

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

A small asteroid burned up in Earth’s atmosphere off the coast of California just hours after being discovered and before impact monitoring systems had registered its trajectory.

Last month, an asteroid impacted Earth’s atmosphere just hours after being detected — somehow, it managed to circumvent impact monitoring systems during its approach to our planet. However, on the bright side, the object measured just 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter and posed very little threat to anything on Earth’s surface.

This asteroid, designated 2024 UQ, was first discovered on Oct. 22 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey in Hawaii, a network of four telescopes that scan the sky for moving objects that might be space rocks on a collision course with Earth. Two hours later, the asteroid burned up over the Pacific Ocean near California, making it an “imminent impactor.”

Nov 15, 2024

Elon Musk says there’s a 10% to 20% chance that AI ‘goes bad,’ even while he raises billions for his own startup xAI

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, existential risks, robotics/AI

The Tesla CEO said AI is a “significant existential threat.”

Nov 14, 2024

Meteorite contains evidence of liquid water on Mars 742 million years ago

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

An asteroid struck Mars 11 million years ago and sent pieces of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these chunks of Mars eventually crashed into the Earth somewhere near Purdue University and is one of the few meteorites that can be traced directly to Mars. This meteorite was rediscovered in a drawer at Purdue University in 1931 and named the Lafayette Meteorite.

Nov 11, 2024

Scientists Consider Drastic Action as Doomsday Glacier Threatens to Flood Entire Islands and Coasts

Posted by in categories: existential risks, transportation

Scientists disagree when the Thwaites or Doomsday Glacier will fully melt, but they are starting to weigh up large scale interventions.

Nov 9, 2024

An asteroid hit Earth just hours after being detected. It was the 3rd ‘imminent impactor’ of 2024

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

A small asteroid burned up in Earth’s atmosphere off the coast of California just hours after being discovered and before impact monitoring systems had registered its trajectory.

Nov 9, 2024

There Are Over 700 Quintillion Planets In The Universe, But There’s Truly No Place Like Home

Posted by in categories: alien life, computing, existential risks

According to astrophysicist Erik Zackrisson’s computer model, there could be about 70 quintillion planets in the universe. However, most of these planets are vastly different from Earth — they tend to be larger, older, and not suited for life. Only around 63 exoplanets have been found in their stars’ habitable zones, making Earth potentially one of the few life-sustaining planets. This could explain Fermi’s paradox — the puzzling lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life. While we continue searching, Earth might be truly special.

After reading the article, Harry gained more than 55 upvotes with this comment: “If life developing on Earth the way it has is 1 in a billion, then this would imply that there is life on at least a billion other planets (?)”

The prevailing belief among astronomers is that the number of planets should at least match the number of stars. With 100 billion galaxies in the universe, each containing about a billion trillion stars, there should be an equally vast number of exoplanets, including Earth-like worlds — in theory.

Nov 4, 2024

‘God of chaos’ asteroid may be transformed by tremors and landslides during 2029 flyby of Earth, study finds

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

When the ‘God of chaos’ asteroid Apophis makes an ultraclose flyby of Earth in 2029, our planet’s gravity may trigger tremors and landslides that totally change the asteroid’s surface.

Oct 29, 2024

More advanced civilizations might set aside our planet as a zoo wherein they can observe us, Zoo Hypothesis suggests

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

Could Earth be a cosmic sanctuary for observation? The Zoo Hypothesis suggests so.

In 1950, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked, “Where is everybody?” The question has since become the basis of the Fermi Paradox, addressing the conflict between the high probability of extraterrestrial life and the complete lack of evidence for its existence. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this, including the Zoo Hypothesis, first introduced in 1973 by Harvard astrophysicist John A. Ball. This theory posits that advanced alien civilizations may know of Earth and its inhabitants but choose to avoid contact, allowing humanity to develop naturally without interference.

Oct 29, 2024

The 3 Body Problem Explored — Robin Hanson, Anders Sandberg & Joscha Bach

Posted by in categories: ethics, existential risks, robotics/AI

The 3 Body Problem Explored: Cosmic Sociology, Longtermism & Existential Risk — round table discussion with three great minds: Robin Hanson, Anders Sandberg and Joscha Bach — moderated by Adam Ford (SciFuture) and James Hughes (IEET).

Some of the items discussed:
- How can narratives that keep people engaged avoid falling short of being realistic?
- In what ways is AI superintelligence kept of stage to allow a narrative that is familiar and easier to make sense of?
- Differences in moral perspectives — moral realism, existentialism and anti-realism.
- Will values of advanced civilisations converge to a small number of possibilities, or will they vary greatly?
- How much will competition be the dominant dynamic in the future, compared to co-ordination?
- In a competitive dynamic, will defense or offense be the most dominant strategy?

Continue reading “The 3 Body Problem Explored — Robin Hanson, Anders Sandberg & Joscha Bach” »

Oct 26, 2024

New research shows most space rocks crashing into Earth come from a single source

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, computing, existential risks

The two new studies place the sources of ordinary chondrite types into specific asteroid families – and most likely specific asteroids. This work requires painstaking back-tracking of meteoroid trajectories, observations of individual asteroids, and detailed modelling of the orbital evolution of parent bodies.

The study led by Miroslav Brož reports that ordinary chondrites originate from collisions between asteroids larger than 30 kilometres in diameter that occurred less than 30 million years ago.

The Koronis and Massalia asteroid families provide appropriate body sizes and are in a position that leads to material falling to Earth, based on detailed computer modelling. Of these families, asteroids Koronis and Karin are likely the dominant sources of H chondrites. Massalia (L) and Flora (LL) families are by far the main sources of L-and LL-like meteorites.

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