2022/01/11 by Huw Price, Price, Huw · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Nuclear Issues and Defense #Risk Perception and Management #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #physics.hist-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2201.03776
openalex publication_date 2022/01/11 · arxiv published 2022/01/11 · arxiv updated 2022/01/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many scientists have expressed concerns about potential catastrophic risks associated with new technologies. But expressing concern is one thing, identifying serious candidates another. Such risks are likely to be novel, rare, and difficult to study; data will be scarce, making speculation necessary. Scientists who raise such concerns may face disapproval not only as doomsayers, but also for their unconventional views. Yet the costs of false negatives in these cases -- of wrongly dismissing warnings about catastrophic risks -- are by definition very high. For these reasons, aspects of the methodology and culture of science, such as its attitude to epistemic risk and to unconventional views, are relevant to the challenges of managing extreme technological risks. In this piece I discuss these issues with reference to a real-world example that shares many of the same features, that of so-called 'cold fusion'.