Making Sense of Existential Threat and Nuclear War | Episode 7 of The Essential Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 29.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we examine the topic of existential threat, focusing in particular on the subject of nuclear war.

Sam opens the discussion by emphasizing the gravity of our ability to destroy life as we know it at any moment, and how shocking it is that nearly all of us perpetually ignore this fact. Philosopher Nick Bostrom expands on this idea by explaining how developing technologies like DNA synthesis could make humanity more vulnerable to malicious actors.

Sam and historian Fred Kaplan then guide us through a hypothetical timeline of events following a nuclear first strike, highlighting the flaws in the concept of nuclear deterrence. Former Defense Secretary William J. Perry echoes these concerns, painting a grim picture of his "nuclear nightmare" scenario: a nuclear terrorist attack.

Zooming out, Toby Ord outlines each potential extinction-level threat, and why he believes that, between all of them, we face a one in six chance of witnessing the downfall of our species. Our episode ends on a cautiously optimistic note, however, as Yuval Noah Harari shares his thoughts on "global myth-making" and its potential role in helping us navigate through these perilous times.

About the Series

Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced The Essential Sam Harris, a new series of audio documentaries exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career.

Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made up about it, we think you’ll find this series fascinating.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're
0:12.1	hearing this, you are not currently on our subscriber feed and will only be hearing
0:16.2	the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense
0:20.7	Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at samharis.org. There you'll find our private RSS feed
0:26.1	to add to your favorite pod catcher, along with other subscriber-only content.
0:30.4	We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support
0:34.5	of our subscribers. So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one.
0:47.4	Welcome to the Essential Sam Harris. This is Making Sense of existential threat and nuclear war.
0:54.8	The goal of this series is to organize, compile, and juxtapose conversations hosted by Sam Harris
1:02.2	in specific areas of interest. This is an ongoing effort to construct a coherent overview of Sam's
1:08.8	perspectives and arguments, the various explorations and approaches to the topic, the relevant
1:15.0	agreements and disagreements, and the pushbacks and evolving thoughts which his guests have advanced.
1:21.3	The purpose of these compilations is not to provide a complete picture of any issue,
1:26.7	but to entice you to go deeper into these subjects. Along the way, we'll point you to the full
1:32.8	episodes with each featured guest, and at the conclusion, we'll offer some reading, listening,
1:38.9	and watching suggestions which range from fun and light to densely academic. One note to keep in
1:45.7	mind for this series. Sam has long argued for a unity of knowledge where the barriers between
1:51.6	fields of study are viewed as largely unhelpful artifacts of unnecessarily partitioned thought.
1:57.8	The pursuit of wisdom and reason in one area of study naturally bleeds into and greatly affects
2:04.0	others. You'll hear plenty of crossover into other topics as these dives into the archives unfold.
2:10.8	And you're thinking about a particular topic may shift as you realize its contingent
2:15.2	relationships with others. In this topic, you'll hear the natural overlap with theories of ethics,
	...

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