How can long term existential risk be ,,speculative'' when we don't know any civilization that survived getting over Type I on Kardashev scale?
Right now there is more evidence against surviving the transition than for it.
Right now there is more evidence against surviving the transition than for it.
Putting physics research on hold to account for such a risk seems a bit silly though, and should definitely be classified as "speculative".
Point being, the Kardashev scale is sci-fi, not science, and any worry about it is the very definition of speculative.
I think we have as much choice in putting research into anything (AI / Physics) onto hold as monkeys had in evolving to humans to be kept in zoos and being used for experiments, I was not arguing against research.
In my mind it will just all happen naturally, and we can't do anything to stop ourselves from being ruled over by AI, as we don't have the capability for global scale concensus anyways.