Summary of the 2022 Advising and Collaboration Program

Post Date December 09, 2022
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In May, GCRI put out an open call for people interested in seeking our advice or collaborating on projects with us. This was a continuation of our successful 2019, 2020, and 2021 Advising and Collaboration Programs. The 2022 Program was made possible by continued support from Gordon Irlam.

The GCRI Advising and Collaboration Program is an opportunity for anyone interested in global catastrophic risk to get more involved in the field. There is practically no barrier to entry in the program: the only thing people need …

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2022 GCRI Fellowship Program

Post Date December 09, 2022
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GCRI is pleased to announce the 2022 Fellowship Program. The Fellowship Program aims to highlight exceptional collaborators GCRI had the opportunity to partner with over the course of the year. This year, we have four 2022 Fellows.

The 2022 GCRI Fellows include students and senior professionals hailing from four countries around the world. Their contributions include research across a diverse range of research disciplines including nuclear war risk, misinformation, and artificial intelligence scenario mapping. Their contributions are invaluable and we are confident that they will continue …

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GCRI Statement on the Ethics of Funding Sources

Post Date December 07, 2022
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The field of global catastrophic risk has been jolted by the recent collapse of the cryptocurrency company FTX. Its philanthropic arm, the FTX Future Fund, was, for a brief stretch of time, a major funder of work on global catastrophic risk and related topics. Some projects related to global catastrophic risk were also funded directly by FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

We at GCRI are deeply saddened by this turn of events. Our hearts go out to all the victims who have suffered from …

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November Newsletter: Giving Tuesday

Post Date November 22, 2022
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Dear friends,

GCRI would like to take the time to thank you for your continued support throughout 2022. Because of your help, we have been able to accomplish much throughout the year including publishing research, hosting another successful Advising and Collaboration Program, and much more (you’ll find our summary of 2022 accomplishments in the upcoming December newsletter). Whether you subscribe to our newsletter, participate in our annual Advising and Collaboration Program, or have the means to donate, we are grateful for your generosity. To continue supporting …

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Assessing Natural Global Catastrophic Risks

Post Date October 14, 2022
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View the paper “Assessing Natural Global Catastrophic Risks”

Humanity today faces a wide range of threats. Some, such as nuclear war, are of human origin. Others, such as volcano eruptions, are not. The relative importance of these two categories of risk is a matter of ongoing debate. This paper argues that prior theoretical research has understated the risk from natural threats. It presents analysis of six natural global catastrophic risks, finding potential for several to pose a high ongoing risk to humanity.

Prior research has posed a …

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Doing Better on Climate Change

Post Date October 07, 2022
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View the article “Doing Better on Climate Change”.

This article, published in the Effective Altruism Forum, presents a wide-ranging discussion of how to factor climate change into efforts to make the world a better place. The article relates climate change to other global catastrophic risks and related issues. It emphasizes the value of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and explains which activities are effective at reducing emissions.

The article begins as follows:

Summary: How to factor climate change into our efforts to make the world a better place. For …

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NAS Workshop Proceedings

Post Date October 05, 2022
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On December 17 and 21 of 2021, Executive Director Seth Baum delivered a remote talk called The challenges of addressing rare events and how to overcome them at the workshop Anticipating Rare Events of Major Significance, hosted by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The proceedings from the workshop can now be found online, and Baum’s remarks from the workshop can be found in Chapter 8, Active Prevention and Deterrence. A summary of his presentation is as follows:

Classic expected utility theory suggests that …

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Nonhuman Value: A Survey of the Intrinsic Valuation of Natural and Artificial Nonhuman Entities

Post Date September 21, 2022
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Category articles, artificial intelligence, ethics, publications

View the paper “Nonhuman Value: A Survey of the Intrinsic Valuation of Natural and Artificial Nonhuman Entities”

The concept of global catastrophic
risk is customarily defined in human terms. Details vary, but a global
catastrophe is almost always regarded as something bad that happens to
humans. However, in moral philosophy, it is often considered that things
that happen to nonhumans can also be bad—and likewise for good things. In some
circumstances, whether and how nonhumans are valued may be the difference
between extremely good or catastrophically bad outcomes for nonhumans. This
raises the …

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Space Expansion Must Support Sustainability – On Earth and in Space

Post Date June 24, 2022
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View the article “Space Expansion Must Support Sustainability – On Earth and in Space”.

This article, published with the Royal United Services
Institute, discusses the role of sustainability when expanding human activities
into outer space. The article illustrates how a framework for space expansion
is being set right now, but that this framework risks expanding unsustainable practices
and paradigms into space. Consequently, global civilization risks wasting
immense amounts of resources and even failing to sustain humanity at worst. In response,
the article suggests five points of emphasis for a robust sustainability …

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June Newsletter: Call For Advisees And Collaborators

Post Date June 07, 2022
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Dear friends,

GCRI has recently put out an open call for participants in our 2022 Advising and Collaboration Program. The Program helps people get more involved in work on global catastrophic risk and focus their activities in more successful directions. We welcome people at all career points, from all geographic locations, and with any interest across the many aspects of global catastrophic risk. No significant time commitment is required; participation can range from a one-time call to get advice on how to get more involved to extended …

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