In my experience, in communicating on these matters to the public or generalists, it’s definitely good to highlight benefits as well as risks—and that style of onion strategy sounds about right and is roughly the type of approach I take (unless in public/general discussion I’m e.g. specifically asked to comment on a particular risk concern).
In speaking to public and policymakers here (outer layer 1 to layer 1.5, if you will), I’ve found a “responsible innovation” type framing to be effective. I’m pro-progress, the world has a lot of problems that advances in technology will need to play a role in solving, and some of the benefits of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence etc will be wonderful. However, we can make progress most confidently if the scientific community (along with other key players) devotes some resources towards identifying, evaluating, and if necessary taking proactive steps to prevent the occurrence of extreme negative scenarios.
In such presentations/discussions, I present CSER and FHI as aiming to lead and coordinate such work. I sometimes make the analogy to an insurance policy: we hope that the risks we work on would never come to pass, but if the risk is plausible and the impact would be big enough, then we can only progress with confidence if we take steps ahead of time to protect our interests.
This seems to be effective particularly with UK policymakers and industry folk—I can have risk concerns received better if I signal that I’m pro-progress, not irrationally risk-averse or fear-mongering, and can hint at a reasonably sophisticated understanding of what these technologies entail and what benefits they can be expected to bring.
I would add a small caution on “astronomical stakes”. It works very well in some rhetoric-friendly public speaking/writing settings (and I’ve used it), but for certain individuals and audiences it can produce a bit of a knee-jerk negative reaction as being a grandiose, slightly self-important perspective (perhaps this applies more in Europe than in the US though, where the level of public rhetoric is a notch or two lower).
In my experience, in communicating on these matters to the public or generalists, it’s definitely good to highlight benefits as well as risks—and that style of onion strategy sounds about right and is roughly the type of approach I take (unless in public/general discussion I’m e.g. specifically asked to comment on a particular risk concern).
In speaking to public and policymakers here (outer layer 1 to layer 1.5, if you will), I’ve found a “responsible innovation” type framing to be effective. I’m pro-progress, the world has a lot of problems that advances in technology will need to play a role in solving, and some of the benefits of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence etc will be wonderful. However, we can make progress most confidently if the scientific community (along with other key players) devotes some resources towards identifying, evaluating, and if necessary taking proactive steps to prevent the occurrence of extreme negative scenarios. In such presentations/discussions, I present CSER and FHI as aiming to lead and coordinate such work. I sometimes make the analogy to an insurance policy: we hope that the risks we work on would never come to pass, but if the risk is plausible and the impact would be big enough, then we can only progress with confidence if we take steps ahead of time to protect our interests. This seems to be effective particularly with UK policymakers and industry folk—I can have risk concerns received better if I signal that I’m pro-progress, not irrationally risk-averse or fear-mongering, and can hint at a reasonably sophisticated understanding of what these technologies entail and what benefits they can be expected to bring.
I would add a small caution on “astronomical stakes”. It works very well in some rhetoric-friendly public speaking/writing settings (and I’ve used it), but for certain individuals and audiences it can produce a bit of a knee-jerk negative reaction as being a grandiose, slightly self-important perspective (perhaps this applies more in Europe than in the US though, where the level of public rhetoric is a notch or two lower).
Thanks for sharing from your experience!