Humanity faces multiple existential threats that are planetary in scale. Currently, most threats are from nature, but in the near future we’re likely to create new risks. Most of these disasters could directly affect everyone on the Earth, but their destructive power cannot reach out across the void of space. A hypothetical independent human colony […]
Tag: machine intelligence
Know your enemy: Saving the world requires humble diligent thought
The end of humanity is difficult to contemplate. Merely having a coherent discussion about existential risks requires that we arm ourselves with effective habits of thought and cultivate a resilient disposition. Let’s muster our courage and talk about a few of the main challenges we humans face when we try to confront the problem of […]
How much do humans need to cooperate in order to survive?
Existential risks are thorny problems. They generally can’t be solved by one person working alone. Success will almost certainly require deep cooperation among all countries. In fact, existential risks can be categorized according to how much cooperation is needed to avoid them. Mass cooperation without an explicit structure might work for some types of risk […]
Cooperate or perish: Minimal levels of collaboration needed to save the world
One way to quantify the danger posed by an existential risk is to examine how much countries will need to cooperate in order to avoid it. Since successful avoidance of an existential risk can be considered a public good (something that benefits the well-being of all members of a society) we can borrow some terminology […]
What will cause human extinction: Natural disaster or human folly?
Existential risks can be divided into two groups: those that are caused by nature and those that are caused by humans (also known as anthropogenic risks). Natural risks come from the physical processes of the Earth, sun, and universe at large. These events have always been a danger to all life on Earth, including humanity. […]
What is an existential risk?
An existential risk is a possible future event that could potentially cause the extinction of humans or the permanent destruction of our ability to thrive. Studying them is very challenging, but given what is at stake, existential risks need to be studied with great care and intensity.