Interview
Athena Aktipis on cancer, cooperation, and the apocalypse
- The book Everything is Fine! How to Thrive in the Apocalypse is scheduled for publication by spring 2024, following Workman's initial interest, with associated social media preparedness content to be posted on Twitter and Instagram prior to release.
- Channel Zed was created as a live-streaming platform addressing existential risks, capitalizing on the pandemic's acceleration of public engagement with the "apocalypse" concept, which has become a household word suitable for playful interaction with threats like nuclear war, pandemics, and AI.
- Athena Actipas intends to maintain a career-long interdisciplinary approach integrating anthropological fieldwork, psychology experiments, computational modeling, and policy implications within single research projects.
- Specific academic initiatives include the continued "Zombified" media project and academic conferences held every two years to frame zombie behavior and future threats in non-jargon, interdisciplinary settings.
- Biological research predicts that 30 to 50 percent of people will develop cancer due to cheating cells undermining multicellular cooperation, with metastasis arising from selected cancer cell clusters that specialize in resource extraction and movement.
- Adaptive therapy, which manages rather than eradicates tumors, is identified as a promising clinical trial approach for advanced tumors, currently active at institutions like Moffitt Cancer Center despite a lack of private sector economic interest in reducing medicine dosage.
- Theoretical predictions suggest cancer cells can evolve cooperation through specialization, and that providing a constant resource supply to local tumors may prevent the selection for dispersal and metastasis.
- Evolutionary biology models indicate that organisms with fast life histories like mice invest less in cancer suppression due to high extrinsic mortality, whereas long-lived, large organisms like elephants have evolved robust somatic maintenance mechanisms.
- Preventing contagious cancer is hypothesized as a primary evolutionary driver for current cancer suppression systems, potentially shifting focus from internal prevention to blocking external contagion.
- Clinical risks associated with extending human lifespan via anti-cancer mechanisms include slower wound healing and reduced cell turnover in tissues such as the intestines, alongside the potential benefit of NSAIDs in reducing genetic mutation rates.
- Social systems are analyzed for parallels to cancer regarding reproduction regulation and environmental maintenance, with restorative justice strategies structurally similar to adaptive therapy by focusing on management and reintegration rather than eradication.
- Risk management strategies are influenced by a natural tendency to anticipate negative outcomes, validated by the "Human Generosity Project" findings that need-based transfers are common in nearly a dozen small-scale societies.
- Cooperation is predicted to be most fragile during long-term starvation or extreme anonymity, whereas data suggests societal breakdown is often overestimated in acute disasters where immediate cooperation and transfers typically increase.
- The year 2024 is forecasted to present continued risks from nuclear events, future pandemics, and the proliferation of AI tools capable of simulating human conversation at scale.
- A specific concern is raised regarding the combination of human strategic goals with AI computational power, creating a unique risk for the exploitation and undermining of systems neither could achieve alone.
- Effective risk management strategies include building "Z teams" for risk pooling and establishing neighborhood connections, such as the "neighboring" system in the US Southwest which provides limited, non-repayable support for unpredictable needs.
- Preparing for apocalyptic scenarios can be facilitated by making emergency readiness fun, such as hosting dinner parties using only shelf-stable prep food, leveraging the apocalyptic framework for engagement.