[Problem profile] “Nuclear weapons” by Benjamin Hilton

It’s very plausible that there will be a nuclear war this century. As a result, nuclear weapons remain an extremely pressing problem. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:49) Summary (01:31) Our overall view (02:56) How likely is a nuclear war? (04:43) How could a nuclear war come about? (09:51) What nuclear weapons are we talking about? (11:35) How bad could a nuclear war be? (12:44) How many weapons would be used? (16:50) How would nuclear weapons be targeted? (18:09) What happens when a nuclear weapon is detonated? (21:23) What about nuclear winter? (26:11) How could this all be changed by new technology? (28:39) Other effects of a nuclear war (30:05) Could a nuclear war cause an existential catastrophe? (31:06) Are there enough nuclear weapons to kill everyone on earth without nuclear winter? (33:39) Could nuclear winter cause human extinction? (35:46) Could there be knock-on effects that lead to an existential catastrophe some other way? (38:30) How likely is an existential catastrophe resulting from nuclear war? (39:56) What about catastrophes that aren't existential? (41:10) Nuclear risk is increasingly neglected (41:53) Philanthropic spending (42:35) Government spending (45:23) How many people are working on this problem? (46:09) How neglected is this issue overall? (47:06) There are ways we can tackle nuclear risk (51:36) What are the major arguments against this problem being pressing? (52:54) What can you do to help? (53:35) What are the key organisations in this space (56:33) Find vacancies on our job board (56:37) Learn more (58:54) Explore other pressing world problems The original text contained 33 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: June 14th, 2024 Source: https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/nuclear-security --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.