Existential Risk
- 👤 Speaker: Martin Rees (University of Cambridge)
- 📅 Date & Time: Friday 25 September 2020, 10:00 - 11:00
- 📍 Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute
Abstract
Three trends
enhance the probability of global catastrophes
,
First, the
rising global population, more demanding of energy and
resources, leads to novel anthropogenic pressures on the
biosphere—
climate change, loss of biodiversity, etc .
Second, the
greater interconnectedness of our civilisation allows
pandemics to rapidly cascade globally, and enhances our
vulnerability to
breakdown in supply chains, financial networks, etc .
Third, novel
technologies—bio, cyber and AI —empower small groups
with the ability (via error or terror) to cause massive
(even global)
disruption. Coping with this threat presents a challenge
to governance: it
will become ever harder to sustain the three goals of
offering all citizens
privacy, security and freedom.
Series This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.
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Martin Rees (University of Cambridge)
Friday 25 September 2020, 10:00-11:00