Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing An Introduction to Existential Risks

Existential risk studies is a growing field that attempts to understand the greatest dangers to humanity from a scientific perspective. This book offers the first scholarly survey of existential risks, from asteroid impacts and climate change to molecular nanotechnology and machine superintelligence. It argues that avoiding an existential catastrophe should be among our highest moral priorities and analyzes a number of risk mitigation strategies to reduce the probability of a worst-case scenario. The dangers facing humanity this century are real and immense, but the future course of civilization is ultimately up to us.

Phil Torres is the founding director of the X-Risks Institute. He has written about apocalyptic terrorism, emerging technologies, and existential risks in a wide range of publications, including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, TIME, Motherboard, the Journal of Evolution and Technology, Foresight, and Metaphilosophy. Follow him @xriskology. Martin Rees is a cosmologist and space scientist based in Cambridge, England. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal.