Below is the list of what I believe to be the most important problems facing humanity in the future that we must solve:
- AI Safety – Artificial Intelligence is here and is rapidly surpassing human intelligence in many areas. We must figure out how to safely move forward into a world in which we create an apex predator above us. Superintelligence will be here in 5-15 years.
- Space colonies – one comet, one supervirus, one giant war potentially could send our entire species into extinction. We have been dependent on one planet for too long.
- Government – we have a ton of great science on what types of government and economies work best, why do some countries still have monsters like leading them like in Russia or North Korea? Why do we let unions with no true counterparty to negotiate back against them take more and more in the USA?
- Education – Billions of dollars are spent a year on education in America, ostensibly for teaching our children, but the entire structure is set up to protect teachers rather than the students. The whole model is upside down. This entrenchment has led to very little change in the way education is done since the Industrial Revolution even though the rest of the world is radically different.