What are the best areas to study or paths to follow on minimizing Existential risk? How studying Moral philosophy can help? Why lying is never a good option.

Courses to take to study this: - "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" by Andrew Ng (https://www.coursera.org/learn/ai) - "Machine Learning" by Andrew Ng (https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning) - "Deep Learning" by Andrew Ng (https://www.coursera.org/learn/deep-learning)

Take the course on Microeconomics by Professor David Laibson at Harvard University ( https://www.edx.org/course/microeconomics-harvard-university-huv1-1 )

There's a pandemic course taught by Laurie Garrett who is an expert on Ebola, HIV, etc ( https://www.coursera.org/learn/pandemics ). And there's a course on poverty taught by Jeffrey Sachs who is an expert in this area ( https://www.edx.org/course/global-health-poverty-ending-aids-ebola-and ).

Take the class "Threats of Mass Destruction" taught by Richard Roberts, former Sec of Defense under Obama and former Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee ( https://www.edx.org/course/threats-mass-destruction%3A%3Aformer%3Asecretary%3Ddefense%3DRobert%2BRoberts ). There's also a great book he wrote about it called "The Real Nuclear Threat", which I would read after taking his online course if you are interested in this topic (https://amzn.to/2Pz7iHm). There's also a book called ""Nuclear Weapons Today"" that describes all the current nuclear arsenals around the world but also goes into detail about how nuclear weapons were first developed and how they worked, etc so you have a basic understanding of what they are and how they work.

There are many courses on moral philosophy out there but here's one good one that talks about Utilitarianism vs Kantianism vs Virtue Ethics vs others, etc : - "Introduction to Ethics" taught by Professor James Linden at Yale University(https://www6.csms.illinois.edu/~jameslinden1/)

This topic is 100% a major piece of Moral

Philosophy. 

I have always been extremely curious as to why people lie

- or -

"White Lie"  - which is similarly destructive - if not worse.

For Example: As white lies act in disservice - they encourage society and even children to believe lying is normal-or "ok".

In a near future add on post about lying •••

- I'll share what "white lie" I heard come out of my Mom - at age 8 -

Which sparked a life long endeavor of learning/curiosity and discovery of why people lie...

By acting in curiosity I check to see -- if not lying is possible (Spoiler• IT IS POSSIBLE) --

--and--

How we can choose to live honestly- for our own wellbeing , that of others and Society in general.