Reviews

The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord

flurry2568's review against another edition

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5.0

1 in 6 is truly terrifying.

maggsgreen's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

uzunfarukefendi's review

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

yates9's review

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5.0

To look at weighting the interests of those that are living now with the interests of every human that will ever exist...

This is an important book because there are so few on this subject and even fewer mostly accessible to a lay audience. Toby does a good job at presenting the field and its key factors and questions. Less convincing in his final chapters because of oversimplification of some of the points and core examples.

The agricultural revolution as an example of a moment of huge transformation is also a controversial moment.. first moment of technical lock-in? Or liberation from the hard work of hunting and gathering? Both? Would have been nice for the author to consider some of the complexity of the issue.

dabblingintgeminestrone's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

dropthemikes's review against another edition

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hopeful informative medium-paced

4.0

ghq's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

I was hoping this would be a deep dive into ideas about how to solve existential problems. Its much more a summary of the problems that exist and a "call to action." People attracted to this type of book already know the basics, and don't need another summary. 

kwheeles's review against another edition

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2.0

Interesting read on all sorts of existential risks to humanity. Feels to me like it could have been edited down to a couple dozen powerpoint slides. Has some method for estimating probabilities for each type of risk (methods mostly establish boundaries), but comes down largely to guesswork.

wharj's review against another edition

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4.0

Strongly recommend for... anyone really!
Good introduction to the topic of existential risk. Some diminishing returns for those familiar with the idea of existential risks but even in those cases, still worth reading!

runforrestrun's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.75