How Vulnerable Is the World?

If COVID originated from bats or whatever, then the reason we don’t see multiple viruses going around simultaneously is because animal–human crossover, though it certainly does happen, happens more rarely than that.

If COVID is a virus of whatever origin that escaped from a Chinese lab (only mentioning this because it’s a popular theory among ordinary netizens and the WHO expressly didn’t rule it out, though it called it not a likely scenario), then we don’t see multiple pathogens going around the world because all developed countries’ top-security bio labs are – thankfully – quite secure. Stephen King’s The Stand and Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone have kept readers awake at night with fear for decades now, but the labs they describe have managed to keep their pathogens from escaping.

Also, some horrible pandemics of yore like bubonic plague were easy to stamp out by modern hygiene practices, which is why they only pop up today in undeveloped places with poor hygiene (e.g. prisons in Madagascar).

> Finally, don't rule out the possibility that the definition of "consciousness" may shift.

Memes (in the academic sense, not the cat video sense) display all our characteristics for biological life.

They respond to stimuli (other memes, changing social trends, etc).

They grow, evolve, reproduce (Catholicism->Many branches of Protestantism)

They maintain homeostasis (core principles)

They're built of cells (people)

And so on. Although I probably wouldn't say they show signs of intelligence (although it'd be cool if someone could imagine a sentient meme). They seem more like "simple" organisms, but at a layer of abstraction above sentient life, something like how biological life is a layer of abstraction above chemistry.

Reminds me of the "great filter" hypothesis that all highly intelligent species develop technologies that destroy them before they find a way to spread on a galactic scale.

The properties that make nuclear bombs so destructive also make them hard to manufacture., so the kitchen nuclear bomb would have never been possible according to any laws of physics we ae familiar with . A bioengineered plague is probably worse than threat than bombs imho, given how bad Covid was for example

The tragedy is the growing consensus that the world is going to shit and it's our fault. Even worse is that all this technology, social media, and so on isn't even making us more happy or fulfilled. Yet, most just sit on their hands not doing much at all. Content to eek out what comfort and pleasure we can get now and try our best to ignore the knowledge that devastation awaits us.

It's amazing that in tens of thousands of years, we've developed the power of gods yet have the same minds. And if anything our culture and values in many ways have gotten worse.

The solution to all of this mess isn't going to come from the same mindset that created the same problems (looking at you carbon capture tech).

What's needed most is an entire global shift in what we value and a concerted effort and funding to make that happen.