If I were currently picking the three most likely bets to destroy human civilization, the first would be AGI. Building an intelligence far smarter than we are, along with automated factories, militaries, and robots it could control, is likely a very dangerous endeavor. I always think of it as like chimpanzees inventing human beings, giving us machine guns, and telling us to get them more bananas. Yeah, you’ll probably be rolling in bananas, but things may also potentially get very dangerous down the road.
My third pick is the classic one people have been worried about for the last few decades: nuclear war. If enough missiles were to start flying, it might not only devastate the countries being hit by them, but it could potentially cause a nuclear winter that essentially stops food production for a decade and starves our species down to nearly nothing.
My number 2 pick is one I think most people underestimate: That is biological warfare.
Why?
Well, as a starting point, throughout history, …
