Why I think *The Precipice* might understate the significance of population ethics

Abstract

Toby Ord’s The Precipice argues that the significance of population ethics for the case for prioritizing existential risk reduction is often overstated. Ord suggests that even those who believe that the existence of future people does not intrinsically matter are likely to agree that a collapse of civilization is undesirable. The author of this forum post argues that Ord overstates this point. First, the author notes that preventing collapse is less important than preventing extinction. Secondly, the author argues that those who adhere to the “asymmetry principle” may not consider preventing collapse to be important if they believe that lives within a collapsed civilization would still be net-positive. Lastly, the author argues that it is plausible that a collapsed civilization would quickly either fully recover or go extinct, making collapse less of an existential risk. – AI-generated abstract.