Global Catastrophic Risks Conference 2008

Oxford University•www.global-catastrophic-risks.com

In July 2008 the Future of Humanity Institute hosted a number of leading experts on different global catastrophic risks. The conference provided delegates with an overview of the key risks, and the state of current thinking on each of them. It brought scholars together from many different disciplines to discuss the common problems and methodologies which affect the study of global catastrophic risks.

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Episodes

Biotechnology and Biosecurity

Lecture on Biotechnology; its applications, its implications, risks and the challenges this new technology brings.

Aug 17, 2009•33 min

Introduction to the Global Catastrophes Risk Conference 2008

Nick Bostrom provides an introduction to the Global Catastrophic Risks Conference and briefly addressing some of the key themes running through it.

Aug 17, 2009•16 min

Probing the Improbable

In this lecture, Toby Ord discusses the philosophical questions surrounding the risk of a global catastophe as well as the implications of a larger Hadron Collider.

Aug 17, 2009•39 min

Expected and unexpected in the exploration of the fundamental laws of nature

How does knowledge of the "known" allow scientists to anticipate consequences of the "unknown"? Possible outcomes of new high-energy experiments will be used to address this topic, covering both scientific and sociological aspects of the issue.

Dec 08, 2008•54 min

Catastrophe, Social Collapse, and Human Extinction

This lecture examines how, for many types of disasters, severity seems to follow a power law distribution, and how the level of resistance to such disruptions can affect the future of humanity.

Dec 08, 2008•30 min

Into the Dark: The Long Term Future of our Dying Universe

This talk outlines astrophysical issues related to the long term fate of the cosmos. It considers the evolution of planets, stars, stellar populations, galaxies, and the universe itself over time scales that greatly exceed the current age of the universe.

Dec 08, 2008•44 min

Avoiding Millennialist Cognitive Biases

This lecture outlines a typology of the pancultural millennial phenomena, describes characteristic cognitive biases and suggests how contemporary forms of secular techno-utopian and techno-apocalyptic discourse reflect these types of millennial psychology

Dec 08, 2008•31 min

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