You captured this in your post, but for me it really comes down to people dismissing existential fears as scifi. It’s not more complicated than “Oh you’ve watched one too many Terminator movies”. What we need is for several well-respected smart figureheads to say “Hey, this sounds crazy, but it really is the biggest threat of our time. Bigger than climate change, bigger than biodiversity loss. We really might all die if we get this wrong. And it really might happen in our lifetimes.”
If I could appeal to authority when explaining this to friends, it would go over much better.
You captured this in your post, but for me it really comes down to people dismissing existential fears as scifi. It’s not more complicated than “Oh you’ve watched one too many Terminator movies”. What we need is for several well-respected smart figureheads to say “Hey, this sounds crazy, but it really is the biggest threat of our time. Bigger than climate change, bigger than biodiversity loss. We really might all die if we get this wrong. And it really might happen in our lifetimes.”
If I could appeal to authority when explaining this to friends, it would go over much better.