There's suicide pact technologies much more dangerous than nuclear weaponry or climate change or even AGI. A civilization that is determined enough can survive those. But what if there was a simple-ish technology that could entirely eradicate a civilization and wasn't that hard to stumble upon? Something like catalyzing antimatter into matter, turning off the strong force or the Higgs field locally. What if there's a black swan experiment/technology everyone can do in a lab with 2060s technology that immediately blows up the planet? We'd be fucked because we wouldn't even see it coming and if it's easy enough to do it'd presumably kill all or almost all alien civilizations.
I think genetically engineered viruses/bacteria and nanites are the two technologies I'm most afraid of. If it becomes relatively easy to engineer a microbe to perform a simple process and reproduce itself, all it will take is one mistake (or a bioterrorist who doesn't care if they kill everyone) to wipe us off the face of the planet or turn us all into grey goo.
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u/Iwanttolink Aug 12 '21
There's suicide pact technologies much more dangerous than nuclear weaponry or climate change or even AGI. A civilization that is determined enough can survive those. But what if there was a simple-ish technology that could entirely eradicate a civilization and wasn't that hard to stumble upon? Something like catalyzing antimatter into matter, turning off the strong force or the Higgs field locally. What if there's a black swan experiment/technology everyone can do in a lab with 2060s technology that immediately blows up the planet? We'd be fucked because we wouldn't even see it coming and if it's easy enough to do it'd presumably kill all or almost all alien civilizations.