The 12 threats of xrisk

The Global Challenges Foundation has (together with FHI) produced a report on the 12 risks that threaten civilization.

infiniteriskP

And, yes, the use of “infinite impact” grates on me – it must be interepreted as “so bad that it is never acceptable”, a ruin probability, or something similar, not that the disvalue diverges. But the overall report is a great start on comparing and analysing the big risks. It is worth comparing it with the WEF global risk report, which focuses on people’s perceptions of risk. This one aims at looking at what risks are most likely/impactful. Both try to give reasons and ideas for how to reduce the risks. Hopefully they will also motivate others to make even sharper analysis – this is a first sketch of the domain, rather than a perfect roadmap. Given the importance of the issues, it is a bit worrying that it has taken us this long.

2 thoughts on “The 12 threats of xrisk

    1. Haha, yes, I think xrisk complacency is a real problem. As a species we are both bad at priority setting and global coordination. We are getting better at it (once there was no UN, no scientific community, no statistics), but maybe not fast enough.

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