Here Be Dragons

A Stark Warning From a Former AI Doomer

Deep Questions with Cal Newport, 8 October 2026. The book comes up at 57 min 28 sec in.

The guest cites Ole Hagstrom's 2015 book as evidence that even a long-termism-sympathetic statistician recognised its disturbing logical implications. Hagstrom poses a thought experiment: if a politician believed a one-in-a-million risk could trigger an existential catastrophe threatening humanity's 'vast and glorious future,' they might be justified in nuking an entire country. The guest presents this as illustrating how utopian logic can rationalise mass atrocity.

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