Existential Risk: More to explore

• The Precipice - Chapter 3 (Natural Risks)
  • How big is the threat to humanity posed by asteroids, comets, supervolcanoes, stellar explosions, and other natural risks? (60 mins.)
  • If you don't have the book, listen to Toby Ord's brief summary of the chapter, starting at 50:46 of this podcast. (4 mins.)
  • You can also see a detailed overview in this lecture video. (1 hour 30 mins.)
• The Vulnerable World Hypothesis
  • Scientific and technological progress might change people’s capabilities or incentives in ways that would destabilize civilization. This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly experiences catastrophe by default. (45 mins.)

Biosecurity

• Open until dangerous: the case for reforming research to reduce global catastrophic risk (Video - 50 mins.)
• Dr. Greg Lewis on COVID-19 & the importance of reducing global catastrophic biological risks (Podcast - 2 hours 30 mins.)

Global governance and international peace

• Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins on 8 years of combating WMD terrorism
  • An interview with Bonnie Jenkins, an ambassador at the U.S. Department of State under the Obama administration, where she worked for eight years as Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. (Podcast - 1 hour 40 mins.)
• Why effective altruists should care about global governance
  • Because global catastrophic risks transcend national borders, we need new global solutions that our current systems of global governance struggle to deliver. (Video - 20 mins.)
• Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? (Book)

Climate Change

• Climate Change Problem Profile
  • An analysis of the worst risks of climate change, and some of the most promising ways to reduce those risks. (30 mins.)
• What can a technologist do about climate change?
  • A wide collection of technical projects which could reduce the burning of fossil fuels. (60 mins.)

Nuclear security

• Daniel Ellsberg on the creation of nuclear doomsday machines
  • Daniel Ellsberg on the institutional insanity that maintains large nuclear arsenals, and a practical plan for dismantling them. (Podcast - 2 hours 45 mins.)
• List of nuclear close calls
  • A description of events in human history that could have led to an unintended nuclear detonation. (5 mins.)