A global catastrophic risk threatens human well-being worldwide and could endanger modern civilization. When such a risk could materially undermine humanityâ€™s existence or cause human extinction, it's classified as an "existential risk". Global catastrophic risks fall into two categories:

Non-anthropogenic risks arise from natural causes, including asteroid impacts, supervolcanic eruptions, natural pandemics, gamma-ray bursts, geomagnetic storms, natural climate change, hostile extraterrestrial life, and solar evolution.

Anthropogenic risks are human-caused and include technological dangers (misaligned artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology), governance failures (global war, nuclear holocaust, bioweapons, cyberwarfare), and environmental threats (climate change, environmental degradation, species extinction, resource distribution problems, population challenges, and agricultural failures). See Wikipedia: "Global Catastrophic Risk

The image is from a scene of the motion picture "Planet Of The Apes " (1968), in which the performer Charlton Heston cries out "You finally really did it! You maniacs! You blew it up! Oh, dam you! God dam you all to hell!"

The focus of this article is not the physical extinction of the human species, but rather those events where the humanity of the then remaining humans is existentially compromised.

Based on a single descriptive paragraph about Self-Sustaining Isolated Societies (SSIS), Perplexity (2024-09-25) analyzed potential dehumanizing threats to such societies, estimating both the probability of these threats occurring within 40 years and the SSIS's likelihood of surviving them according to the following categories: High (80-100%) indicates strong survival likelihood with minimal impact; Moderate to High (60-79%) suggests likely survival with notable challenges to resilience; Moderate (40-59%) represents significant challenges with roughly equal chances of success or failure; Low to Moderate (20-39%) means survival is possible but difficult, with more negative than positive factors; Low (0-19%) indicates unlikely survival with only minimal chance of overcoming challenges; and finally, Unknown designates insufficient information or excessive uncertainty to estimate survival probability.

Table 1: Technological Threats

The SSIS demonstrates exceptional resilience against technological threats, with high survivability ratings across multiple categories. This resilience stems from its fundamental design principles: deliberate limitation to primitive technologies, focus on human-scaled communities, emphasis on craftsmanship, and economic self-sufficiency. The SSIS effectively counters AI/robot labor displacement through its valuation of meaningful human work over efficiency. Its isolation and primitive technological foundation create natural barriers against technological dehumanization, mass surveillance, and cognitive manipulation systems that require advanced digital infrastructure.

The SSIS exhibits remarkable resistance to genetic engineering and transhumanism through its core values of preserving natural human existence and preventing "philosophical contagions." The SSIS deliberate avoidance of advanced systems provides significant protection against the human misuse of AI. However, the SSIS faces more complex scenarios with superintelligent AI: an aligned ASI might respect the an SSIS as a cultural experiment yet view it as limiting human potential, while an unaligned ASI represents a severe existential threat with potential for resource exploitation or targeted interference.

Table 2: Non-SSIS Human and Internal Threats

The SSIS faces moderate to high survivability against external human pressures, with the outside world potentially viewing its lifestyle as outdated or inefficient. This pressure could range from cultural influence to direct intervention attempts. The most significant internal challenge emerges through generational discord, as new generations raised within the sanctuary may question technological limitations and lifestyle restrictions, potentially triggering fundamental conflicts about the community's direction.

Resource management presents ongoing challenges requiring careful stewardship to maintain self-sustainability with primitive technologies. The community faces the risk of ideological drift over time, potentially moving away from its founding principles of preserving a more humane quality of life. These internal and external human factors represent more immediate and practical challenges to the SSIS than many technological or existential threats, requiring ongoing adaptation and reinforcement of core values.

Table 3: Existential Threats to Humans

The SSIS demonstrates variable resilience against existential threats, with its self-sufficiency providing particular strength against economic collapse due to limited dependence on global supply chains and financial systems. Its isolation offers moderate protection against pandemics through natural quarantine effects, though limited medical technology creates vulnerability once pathogens breach the community. The sanctuary's sustainable practices provide some buffer against climate change impacts, though extreme weather events and agricultural disruptions remain significant challenges.

The SSIS shows limited survivability against catastrophic events like nuclear conflict, asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts, and supervolcano eruptions. These global-scale disasters would bypass any protection offered by isolation or technological simplicity. The community might fare slightly better against magnetic pole reversal due to reduced dependence on sensitive electronics, though increased solar radiation would still pose risks. Overall, while the SSIS concept demonstrates remarkable resilience against many technological and social dehumanization threats, it remains vulnerable to large-scale environmental changes and global catastrophes that fundamentally alter the conditions for human survival.

Clearly, the above analysis is highly speculative and is based on Perplexity being provided a very limited abstract of the SSIS. In certain dehumanizing threats, e.g., AI/Robot Labor Displacement, Perplexity did not initially explicitly consider isolation as a principal mitigating factor. However, the analysis serves as a starter for further study and refinement, and serves to highlight the challenges that an SSIS feasibility study will need to address.

Comparative Analysis of SSIS vs Non-SSIS Dehumanization Survival

Perplexity also provided a comparative analysis for how certain threat categories would effectively dehumanize SSIS and the Non-SSIS populations.

Table 4: Dehumanization Threats to Non-SSIS Population

Non-SSIS populations face severe dehumanization risks across multiple technological and social domains. AI/robot labor displacement threatens widespread job losses, skill reduction, and the potential emergence of a "useless class" economically unable to compete with automation. Technological dehumanization presents even greater dangers through excessive reliance on digital interfaces reducing empathy, algorithmic decision-making diminishing human agency, and virtual reality technologies disconnecting people from physical existence. Genetic engineering and transhumanism risk creating enhanced humans and a potential genetic underclass, fundamentally challenging traditional definitions of humanity.

Mass surveillance systems present extreme dehumanization potential through privacy erosion, social credit systems quantifying human worth, and predictive policing treating individuals as potential criminals rather than autonomous beings. Environmental disconnection through urbanization and technological mediation removes people from natural rhythms and reduces empathy for non-human life. Cognitive manipulation via advanced persuasion technologies, neurotechnology, and AI-driven personalized content threatens to exploit cognitive biases and reduce exposure to diverse perspectives. The human misuse of AI systems compounds these threats through overreliance on artificial decision-making, manipulation of public opinion, and warfare applications that dehumanize enemies and civilians.

Table 5: Comparative SSIS And Non-SSIS Survival Analysis

In a similar prior conversation, Claude's survival SSIS probabilities were a little more optimistic than Perplexity. The following table provides a comparison focused on the principal dehumanizing categories.

A direct comparison reveals striking survival disparities between SSIS and non-SSIS populations. For example, Claude AI/robot labor displacement estimate shows 99% survival probability for the SSIS versus just 30% for non-SSIS groups. While SSIS remains somewhat vulnerable to large-scale environmental and global catastrophes, its survival probabilities remain "materially better" than non-SSIS populations across all identified dehumanization risks.

Table 6. Survival Analysis to Catastrophic Events

Claude also provided other dehumanization survival probabilities for potential physical existential threats for SSIS and non-SSIS populations which are presented in the following table:

The SSIS demonstrates significant resistance to the dehumanization of near extinction catastrophic events. This resilience stems from its fundamental deliberate isolation from external influences, restricted primitive technologies, focus on human-scaled communities, and coexistence with nature. Claude concluded that the SSIS features create a population "highly resistant to the dehumanizing influences that affect non-SSIS populations".

Obviously, there is no point to the SSIS if the SSIS was not "highly resistant to the dehumanizing influences that affect non-SSIS populations."