The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths does not multiply by ten the strength of our determination to stop it. It adds one more zero on paper for our eyes to glaze over." - Meaning and context.">
Cognitive Biases Potentially Affecting Judgment of Global Risks, a chapter of Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic (2008)
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The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths does not multiply by ten the strength of our determination to stop it. It adds one more zero on paper for our eyes to glaze over.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths does not multiply by ten the strength of our determination to stop it. It adds one more zero on paper for our eyes to glaze over." in the context of "Cognitive Biases Potentially Affecting Judgment of Global Risks, a chapter of Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic (2008)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Eliezer Yudkowsky" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Eliezer Yudkowsky

About Eliezer Yudkowsky

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (born September 11, 1979) is an American writer, blogger, and advocate for the Singularity and Friendly Artificial Intelligence.