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The Cambridge
Project for Existential Risk
Many scientists are concerned that developments in
human technology may soon pose new,
extinction-level risks to our species as a whole.
Such dangers have been suggested from progress in
AI, from developments in biotechnology and
artificial life, from nanotechnology, and from
possible extreme effects of anthropogenic climate
change. The seriousness of these risks is
difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a
cause for concern, given how much is at stake.
The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk — a
joint initiative between a philosopher, a
scientist, and a software entrepreneur — begins
with the conviction that these issues require a
great deal more scientific investigation than they
presently receive. Our aim is to establish within
the University of Cambridge a multidisciplinary
research centre dedicated to the study and
mitigation of risks of this kind. We are convinced
that there is nowhere on the planet better suited
to house such a centre. Our goal is to steer a
small fraction of Cambridge's great intellectual
resources, and of the reputation built on its past
and present scientific pre-eminence, to the task
of ensuring that our own species has a long-term
future. (In the process, we hope to make it a
little more certain that we humans will be around
to celebrate the University's own millenium, now less than
two centuries hence.)
We will be developing a prospectus for a
Cambridge-based Centre
for the Study of Existential Risk on this
site in coming months, and welcome enquiries and
offers of support.
HP, MJR & JT
April 2012
Co-founders
Huw Price
Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy,
Cambridge
Martin
Rees
Master of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor
of Cosmology & Astrophysics, Cambridge
Jaan
Tallinn
Co-founder of Skype
Cambridge advisors
David
Cleevely
Founding
Director, Centre for Science and Policy
Tim Crane
Knightbridge
Professor of Philosophy
David
Spiegelhalter
Winton
Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk
External advisors
Nick Bostrom
Professor
of Philosophy, Future of Humanity Institute,
Oxford
David
Chalmers
Professor
of Philosophy, NYU & ANU
George
M Church
Professor
of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Max
Tegmark
Professor
of Physics, MIT
Jonathan
B Wiener
Professor
of Law, Environmental Policy & Public
Policy, Duke University
Contact|Faculty of
Philosophy|CSaP|University of
Cambridge
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