Review of End Times in Science

Post Date September 23, 2019
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Read Seth Baum’s review of End Times.

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum recently reviewed Bryan Walsh’s new book End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World for Science. Dr. Baum calls End Times is “a highly readable account of the field of global catastrophic risk as it is currently constituted”. The book specifically covers Earth-asteroid collision, volcano eruption, nuclear war, global warming, disease outbreaks, biotechnology, and various threats from artificial and extraterrestrial intelligence. Dr. Baum writes that the book raises two key questions …

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GCRI Session at the 2019 Society for Risk Analysis Meeting

Post Date July 22, 2019
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GCRI is hosting a session on Global Catastrophic Risks at the 2019 meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) in Arlington, VA. SRA is the leading professional society for all types of risk. SRA brings together researchers from many disciplines as well as professionals from government, industry, nonprofits, and other sectors.

GCRI Director of Research Tony Barrett is chairing the session. It will feature talks by GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum, GCRI Special Advisor for Government Affairs Jared Brown, GCRI Senior Advisor Gary Ackerman, University …

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July Newsletter: Asteroid-Nuclear Risk Analysis

Post Date July 16, 2019
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Dear friends,

One reason it is important to analyze the global catastrophic risks quantitatively is that some decisions involve tradeoffs between them. An action may reduce one risk while increasing another. It’s important to know whether the decrease in the one risk is large enough to offset the increase in the other.

This month, we announce a new paper that presents a detailed analysis of one such decision: the use of nuclear explosives to deflect Earthbound asteroids away. Nuclear deflection is an option under active consideration by …

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May Newsletter: Call For Advisees & Collaborators

Post Date May 30, 2019
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Dear friends,

I’m pleased to announce that GCRI has recently launched an open call for advisees and collaborators. If you are interested in working with GCRI, or if you would simply like some advice from us on how you can get involved in global catastrophic risk, then please don’t hesitate to reach out. We welcome inquiries from people at all career points, from students to senior scholars and professionals. Please see our blog post for details.

Sincerely,

Seth BaumExecutive Director

Planetary Defense

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled …

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Violent Conflict Risk in Planetary Defense Decisions

Post Date May 14, 2019
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GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled “Accounting For Violent Conflict Risk In Planetary Defense Decisions” at the 2019 International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C. Baum’s talk looked at the relationship between efforts to protect the Earth from the impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) and the risk of violent conflict. Richard A. Lovett wrote about Baum’s talk and about the discussion of planetary defense decisions at the conference in Cosmos.

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled …

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Why Catastrophes Can Change the Course of Humanity

Post Date April 18, 2019
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BBC Future just published an essay by GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum titled “Why Catastrophes Can Change the Course of Humanity” on global catastrophes and the long-term fate of human civilization. The essay argues that we need to consider the impact of potential catastrophes not just on people alive today but also on the long-term future of humanity.

The essay draws on a paper Dr. Baum wrote with a group of scholars including Olle Häggström, Robin Hanson, Karin Kuhlemann, Anders Sandberg, and Roman …

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November Newsletter: Organization Updates

Post Date November 08, 2018
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Dear friends,

We are currently in the process of implementing some major organization updates. These are making the organization more in line with our ongoing work and future plans.

First, we’ve published new pages for the seven topics that our work focuses on:

Aftermath of Global Catastrophe
Artificial Intelligence
Cross-Risk Evaluation & Prioritization
Nanotechnology
Nuclear War
Risk & Decision Analysis
Solutions & Strategy

Second, we’ve overhauled our affiliates, removing Associates and Junior Associates and creating a new Senior Advisory Council. We are delighted to welcome Gary Ackerman, John Garrick, and Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh as GCRI’s …

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October Newsletter: The Superintelligence Debate

Post Date October 02, 2018
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Dear friends,

When I look at debates about risks from artificial intelligence, I see a lot of parallels with debates over global warming. Both involve global catastrophic risks that are, to a large extent, driven by highly profitable industries. Indeed, today most of the largest corporations in the world are in either the computer technology or fossil fuel industries.

One key difference is that whereas global warming debates have been studied in great detail by many talented researchers, AI debates have barely been studied at all. As …

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August Newsletter: Long-Term Trajectories

Post Date August 15, 2018
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Dear friends,

This month I am proud to announce a new paper, “Long-Term Trajectories of Human Civilization“. The paper calls for attention to the fate of human civilization over time scales of millions, billions, or trillions of years into the future. While most attention goes to nearer-term phenomena, the long-term can be profoundly important to present-day decision-making. For example, one major issue the paper examines is the fate of global catastrophe survivors. How well they fare is a central factor in whether people today should focus …

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June Newsletter: Summer Talks

Post Date June 21, 2018
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Artificial Intelligence

GCRI Associate Roman Yampolskiy gave a talk on AI safety to the Global Challenges Summit 2018 in Astana, Kazakhstan May 17-19.

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum and GCRI Associate Roman Yampolskiy participated in a workshop on “AI Coordination & Great Powers” hosted by Foresight Institute in San Francisco on June 7.

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a seminar on “AI Risk, Ethics, Social Science, and Policy” hosted by the University of California, Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI) on June 11.

Effective Altruism

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum …

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