If I understand it correctly, the argument against bio doom is that humans can defend themselves against viruses in the air using air filtering, etc.?
Well, in order for that to work, those humans would need to be prepared. Yes, there will be many preppers. Possibly many more than today, because if the technology and economy advance, prepping should be cheaper. Still, that would be less than 1% of population, I guess. I mean, it’s still only 2027, right? Half of the population is probably still busy debating whether AI has a soul, or whether it is capable of creating real art. And the other half is sexting their digital boyfriends and girlfriends...
This seems to belong to the category of “problems that you could solve in 5 minutes of thinking, and yet it somehow seems plausible that a vastly superhuman intelligence capable of managing planetary economy and science would be unable to come up with a solution”. The obvious solution is “strategic preparation + multiple lines of attack”.
Strategic preparation includes:
ideological: make prepping low-status; distract people by other issues: culture wars, economy, some new form of hyperstimulus
technological: e.g. invent a deadly virus that is slightly different from the rest, and then produce filtering technology that protects against all kinds of viruses except that one (and if this specific plan turns out to be impossible, try something analogical)
surveillance: have a list of all people who actually use filtering; when the day comes, everyone else gets the virus, but the preppers get a bullet, duh (the few ones in a solid bunker get a nuke)
Multiple lines of attack: if you can release the deadly virus all around the world at the same time, you might simultaneously also put poison in the drinking water, switch all domestic appliances to killer mode, etc. And immediately release the drones to kill the survivors.
If someone still survives, hidden somewhere in a bunker, that’s no big deal. The moment they try to do anything, they will reveal themselves, and get a bomb thrown at them. If they somehow keep surviving underground, undetected, for decades… who cares. It’s not like they can build a technology comparable to the one outside, without getting detected.
The most optimistic outcome is that a group of futuristic hyper-preppers survives; their bodies are covered by the latest defensive technology, they produce/recycle their own food and water and air, they even have a smaller aligned/obedient AI, etc. Well, if they are visible, they get a nuke. If they hide underground or fly to the Moon… good luck building an alternative stronger economy, because they will need it to win the war.
If I understand it correctly, the argument against bio doom is that humans can defend themselves against viruses in the air using air filtering, etc.?
Well, in order for that to work, those humans would need to be prepared. Yes, there will be many preppers. Possibly many more than today, because if the technology and economy advance, prepping should be cheaper. Still, that would be less than 1% of population, I guess. I mean, it’s still only 2027, right? Half of the population is probably still busy debating whether AI has a soul, or whether it is capable of creating real art. And the other half is sexting their digital boyfriends and girlfriends...
This seems to belong to the category of “problems that you could solve in 5 minutes of thinking, and yet it somehow seems plausible that a vastly superhuman intelligence capable of managing planetary economy and science would be unable to come up with a solution”. The obvious solution is “strategic preparation + multiple lines of attack”.
Strategic preparation includes:
ideological: make prepping low-status; distract people by other issues: culture wars, economy, some new form of hyperstimulus
technological: e.g. invent a deadly virus that is slightly different from the rest, and then produce filtering technology that protects against all kinds of viruses except that one (and if this specific plan turns out to be impossible, try something analogical)
surveillance: have a list of all people who actually use filtering; when the day comes, everyone else gets the virus, but the preppers get a bullet, duh (the few ones in a solid bunker get a nuke)
Multiple lines of attack: if you can release the deadly virus all around the world at the same time, you might simultaneously also put poison in the drinking water, switch all domestic appliances to killer mode, etc. And immediately release the drones to kill the survivors.
If someone still survives, hidden somewhere in a bunker, that’s no big deal. The moment they try to do anything, they will reveal themselves, and get a bomb thrown at them. If they somehow keep surviving underground, undetected, for decades… who cares. It’s not like they can build a technology comparable to the one outside, without getting detected.
The most optimistic outcome is that a group of futuristic hyper-preppers survives; their bodies are covered by the latest defensive technology, they produce/recycle their own food and water and air, they even have a smaller aligned/obedient AI, etc. Well, if they are visible, they get a nuke. If they hide underground or fly to the Moon… good luck building an alternative stronger economy, because they will need it to win the war.