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July 01, 2008
Inexpensive and reliable disaster defence
Anders Sandberg writes in Practical Ethics.
In the article Duck and cover: how expensive does impact safety have to be? Sandberg examines disaster prediction models and how to set up civil defence plans.
Using the example of asteroid impacts he shows that it can be done for pretty low investments. The problem is that unglamorous, inexpensive programs do not get politicians elected and will not be the foundation for a great administrative empire. But scaling up projects increase the risk for waste. Saving mankind from many disasters can be done very cheaply, but that doing it reliably may be very costly.
Posted by Waldemar at July 1, 2008 09:15 AM