Neutron star mergers are not well understood yet, but since they probably spatter a lot of neutronium fragments, it's natural to think of them as the source of most stuff that is like uranium and thorium. His claim about such mergers is pretty irrelevant to the main drift of that video, since phosphorus is a light element mostly made (I'm pretty sure) in supernovas, not kilonovas. I believe phosphorus is thought to result from decay of an isotope of silicon that gets one-too-many neutrons added to it during the supernova flux.
I would never argue that nuclear war isn't a problem yet, especially not with the climate catastrophe still playing out! I just spent some time (too much, probably) engaging with Great Filter theorists 20 years ago, and some of them liked to press extremely depressing arguments about inevitability which just don't look so inevitable to me anymore.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-12-10 10:41 pm (UTC)I believe phosphorus is thought to result from decay of an isotope of silicon that gets one-too-many neutrons added to it during the supernova flux.
I would never argue that nuclear war isn't a problem yet, especially not with the climate catastrophe still playing out! I just spent some time (too much, probably) engaging with Great Filter theorists 20 years ago, and some of them liked to press extremely depressing arguments about inevitability which just don't look so inevitable to me anymore.