Global Catastrophic Risks

Natural Hazards Observer Review from previous edition This volume is remarkably entertaining and readable...It's risk assessment meets science fiction.

Nature The book works well, providing a mine of peer-reviewed information on the great risks that threaten our own and future generations.

Martin J Rees (from foreword) We should welcome this fascinating and provocative book.

Nature [Provides] a mine of peer-reviewed information on the great risks that threaten our own and future generations.

<br>Nick Bostrom, PhD, is Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, in the James Martin 21st Century School, at Oxford University. He previously taught at Yale University in the Department of Philosophy and in the Yale Institute for Social and Policy Studies. Bostrom has served as an expert consultant for the European Commission in Brussels and for the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington DC. He has advised the British Parliament, the European Parliament, and many other public bodies on issues relating to emerging technologies. <br>Milan M. Cirkovic, PhD, is a senior research associate of the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, (Serbia) and a professor of Cosmology at Department of Physics, University of Novi Sad (Serbia). He received both his PhD in Physics and his MSc in Earth and Space Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (USA) and his BSc in Theoretical Physics was received from the University of Belgrade.<br>

Acknowledgements; Foreword; Introduction; I BACKGROUND; Long-term astrophysical processes; Evolution theory and the future of humanity; Millenial tendencies in responses to apocalyptic threats; Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgement of global risks; Observation selection effects and global catastrophic risks; Systems-based risk analysis; Catastrophes and insurance; Public policy towards catastrophe; II RISKS FROM NATURE; Super-volcanism and other geophysical processes of catastrophic import; Hazards from comets and asteroids; Influence of Supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and cosmic rays on the terrestrial environment; III RISKS FROM UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES; Climate change and global risk; Plagues and pandemics: past, present, and future; Artificial Intelligence as a positive and negative factor in global risk; Big troubles, imagined and real; IV RISKS FROM HOSTILE ACTS; Catastrophe, social collapse, and and human extinction; The continuing threat of nuclear war; Catastrophic nuclear terrorism: a preventable peril; Biotechnology and biosecurity; Nanotechnology as global catastrophic risk; The totalitarian threat; Author's biographies; Index