An Anthology of Global Risk

doi:10.11647/obp.0360

This anthology brings together a diversity of key texts in the emerging field of Existential Risk Studies. It serves to complement the previous volume The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies by providing open access to original research and insights in this rapidly evolving field. At its heart, this book highlights the ongoing development of new academic paradigms and theories of change that have emerged from a community of researchers in and around the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. The chapters in this book challenge received notions of human extinction and civilization collapse and seek to chart new paths towards existential security and hope.

The volume curates a series of research articles, including previously published and unpublished work, exploring the nature and ethics of catastrophic global risk, the tools and methodologies being developed to study it, the diverse drivers that are currently pushing it to unprecedented levels of danger, and the pathways and opportunities for reducing this. In each case, they go beyond simplistic and reductionist accounts of risk to understand how a diverse range of factors interact to shape both catastrophic threats and our vulnerability and exposure to them and reflect on different stakeholder communities, policy mechanisms, and theories of change that can help to mitigate and manage this risk. Bringing together experts from across diverse disciplines, the anthology provides an accessible survey of the current state of the art in this emerging field.

The interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary nature of the cutting-edge research presented here makes this volume a key resource for researchers and academics. However, the editors have also prepared introductions and research highlights that will make it accessible to an interested general audience as well. Whatever their level of experience, the volume aims to challenge readers to take on board the extent of the multiple dangers currently faced by humanity, and to think critically and proactively about reducing global risk.

Contributors

SJ Beard

(editor)

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

University of Cambridge

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2834-0993

https://sjbeard.weebly.com/

SJ Beard is a Senior Research Associate and Academic Programme Manager at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, an Associated Researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. SJ Beard works on the Evaluation of Extreme Technological Risks, and other ethical problems with ensuring a long term future for humanity. They also have a wide range of skills and experiences producing high quality research, training and analysis across education and public affairs.

Tom Hobson

(editor)

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

University of Cambridge

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1244-3787

https://www.cser.ac.uk/team/tom-hobson/

Tom Hobson’s work is focused on understanding and mapping the militarisation of emerging technologies, particularly biological technologies. His research, more broadly, is concerned with understanding how scientific and expert communities and military and policy actors imagine the future, the ways that existing technologies shape their visions of the future, and how they endeavour to secure a particular vision of the future through technology and innovation. Tom’s work aims to guide norms and policy in the present by developing a better understanding of how future (extreme) technological risk can be (re)produced through innovation and technology. Tom has a background in International Relations, Security Studies and STS, having completed his PhD within the Centre for War & Technology at the University of Bath. He has also worked in policy, research and project assessment in the fields of biosecurity and synthetic biology.

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An Anthology of Global Risk

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Contents

Contributors

SJ Beard

Tom Hobson