“Andrew Snyder-Beattie on the low-tech plan to patch humanity’s greatest weakness” by 80000_Hours
By Robert WiblinWatch on YoutubeListen on SpotifyRead the transcript Episode summary If we can get their cost down to $10, this becomes one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing respiratory transmission. The shelf life is 20 years. That means basically 50 cents per person per year of protection. … If you’re a government it makes a lot of sense to just stockpile enough to cover your entire population. Right now we spend about $10 billion a year on missile defence. Stockpiling one of these for every single person in the US would be 1% the cost of that. — Andrew Snyder-Beattie Conventional wisdom is that safeguarding humanity from the worst biological risks — microbes optimised to kill as many as possible — is difficult bordering on impossible, making bioweapons humanity's single greatest vulnerability. Andrew Snyder-Beattie thinks conventional wisdom could be wrong. Andrew's job at Open Philanthropy is to spend [...] ---Outline:(00:28) Episode summary(03:59) The interview in a nutshell(04:25) 1. Two primary classes of biological threats could pose an existential risk(05:27) 2. The four pillars plan offers a robust, defence-in-depth strategy(08:22) 3. Other catastrophic biorisks, like agricultural collapse, are less concerning(09:21) 4. We urgently need entrepreneurial people to execute this plan(10:17) Highlights(10:20) The worst-case scenario: mirror bacteria(15:44) Why antibiotics arent enough to fight mirror bacteria(18:58) The most cost-effective way governments could prevent respiratory transmission among their populations(22:17) Why Andrew works on biorisks rather than AI(26:54) Everyone was wrong: biorisks are defence dominant in the limit(32:23) The four pillars plan -- and how listeners can help--- First published: October 2nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JopMdWgtthCbEFxk2/andrew-snyder-beattie-on-the-low-tech-plan-to-patch-humanity --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.