What's happening people? Welcome back to the show. My guest today is Rob Reed. He's an entrepreneur,

podcaster and an author, and we are talking about how to avoid our own destruction.

The last 15 months have been a terrifying taster of just what a global crisis is like,

except it wasn't lethal enough to be a threat to our long-term survival. But, just because this one

wasn't doesn't mean that there won't be more deadly existential risks lurking out there waiting

to end us. Today, expect to learn how synthetic biology might be the biggest risk to our survival.

What we should have learned from 2020, whether artificial general intelligence is an immediate threat,

Rob's opinion on my solution for saving civilization, whether we should totally stop all technological

development and much more. On top of being terrifying across the board, this is now the new record

holder for the longest ever podcast episode that I've recorded on modern wisdom. And rightly so,

like this is a very important topic. If we manage to survive the next few centuries,

it's likely that our genetic progeny will get to colonise the galaxy and they'll enjoy experiences

and levels of happiness and fulfilment that we can only dream of. And if we don't, then we were

just a brief illumination in one dark corner of the universe where consciousness lit up and then

died off like a poorly lit firework. In case that wasn't enough bad news, I'm still in a beether.

So no Saturday episode this week. Hmm, I know, very sad. But next week I will be back Monday,

Thursday and Saturday will resume. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, it's the only way you

can ensure you will never miss an episode when it's uploaded. And it'll make me very happy.

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