By Kelsey Piper
From the article:
Going to Mars might be a fun goal. But keeping us alive requires staying focused on Earth.
What I heard from all of them was that, while space colonization is exciting, more resources are needed for risk-mitigation efforts here on Earth.
Beckstead, the Open Philanthropy Project program officer, is focused on those. “Given that there are many risks it doesn’t protect us from very well, and given that it’s expensive and going to take a long time ... I see options that are an easier route to success,” said Beckstead.He did, however, want to make sure I knew that he thinks space exploration is a worthy human endeavor — just not particularly high on the list of ways to keep our species alive.
I took a look at the projects Beckstead has made grants to. Scientists at Rutgers Universityare studying the climate effects of nuclear war, hoping to create pressure towards safer nuclear policy by better understanding the devastation a war could cause. At UCLA’s School of Law, researchers are studying the international governance and cooperation implications of climate engineering. The Center for Global Development is looking at the Ebola crisis for takeaways about how we might manage a pandemic, and researchers at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute are studying international coordination on AI.
Read the full article here.