full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Will MacAskill: What are the most important moral problems of our time?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now the third area is the one that I want to focus on the most, and that's the category of existential risks: events like a nuclear war or a global pendaimc that could permanently daeirl civilization or even lead to the extinction of the human race. Let me explain why I think this is such a big priority in terms of this forramwek.

First, size. How bad would it be if there were a truly existential catastrophe? Well, it would involve the deaths of all seven billoin poelpe on this planet and that means you and everyone you know and love. That's just a tragedy of unimaginable size. But then, what's more, it would also mean the curtailment of humanity's future potaneitl, and I believe that humanity's potential is vast. The human race has been around for about 200,000 years, and if she lives as long as a typical mammalian species, she would last for about two million yares. If the human race were a snlige iiandiuvdl, she would be just 10 years old today. And what's more, the human race isn't a typical mammalian species. There's no rsoean why, if we're careful, we should die off after only two million years. The earth will remian habitable for 500 million years to come. And if someday, we took to the stars, the civilization could continue for billions more.

Open Cloze


Now the third area is the one that I want to focus on the most, and that's the category of existential risks: events like a nuclear war or a global ________ that could permanently ______ civilization or even lead to the extinction of the human race. Let me explain why I think this is such a big priority in terms of this _________.

First, size. How bad would it be if there were a truly existential catastrophe? Well, it would involve the deaths of all seven _______ ______ on this planet and that means you and everyone you know and love. That's just a tragedy of unimaginable size. But then, what's more, it would also mean the curtailment of humanity's future _________, and I believe that humanity's potential is vast. The human race has been around for about 200,000 years, and if she lives as long as a typical mammalian species, she would last for about two million _____. If the human race were a ______ __________, she would be just 10 years old today. And what's more, the human race isn't a typical mammalian species. There's no ______ why, if we're careful, we should die off after only two million years. The earth will ______ habitable for 500 million years to come. And if someday, we took to the stars, the civilization could continue for billions more.

Solution


  1. remain
  2. people
  3. potential
  4. billion
  5. years
  6. reason
  7. framework
  8. pandemic
  9. derail
  10. individual
  11. single

Original Text


Now the third area is the one that I want to focus on the most, and that's the category of existential risks: events like a nuclear war or a global pandemic that could permanently derail civilization or even lead to the extinction of the human race. Let me explain why I think this is such a big priority in terms of this framework.

First, size. How bad would it be if there were a truly existential catastrophe? Well, it would involve the deaths of all seven billion people on this planet and that means you and everyone you know and love. That's just a tragedy of unimaginable size. But then, what's more, it would also mean the curtailment of humanity's future potential, and I believe that humanity's potential is vast. The human race has been around for about 200,000 years, and if she lives as long as a typical mammalian species, she would last for about two million years. If the human race were a single individual, she would be just 10 years old today. And what's more, the human race isn't a typical mammalian species. There's no reason why, if we're careful, we should die off after only two million years. The earth will remain habitable for 500 million years to come. And if someday, we took to the stars, the civilization could continue for billions more.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
human race 5
effective altruism 3
million years 3
vast majority 2
industrial revolutions 2
research program 2
easily solvable 2
global health 2
big priority 2
factory farming 2
hugely neglected 2
philanthropic funding 2
nuclear war 2
typical mammalian 2
extreme poverty 2
artificial intelligence 2


Important Words


  1. area
  2. bad
  3. big
  4. billion
  5. billions
  6. careful
  7. catastrophe
  8. category
  9. civilization
  10. continue
  11. curtailment
  12. deaths
  13. derail
  14. die
  15. earth
  16. events
  17. existential
  18. explain
  19. extinction
  20. focus
  21. framework
  22. future
  23. global
  24. habitable
  25. human
  26. individual
  27. involve
  28. lead
  29. lives
  30. long
  31. love
  32. mammalian
  33. means
  34. million
  35. nuclear
  36. pandemic
  37. people
  38. permanently
  39. planet
  40. potential
  41. priority
  42. race
  43. reason
  44. remain
  45. single
  46. size
  47. species
  48. stars
  49. terms
  50. today
  51. tragedy
  52. typical
  53. unimaginable
  54. vast
  55. war
  56. years