Hughes, Bostrom, Treder, Cirkovic @ Global Catastrophic Risks Conference

http://www.global-catastrophic-risks.com/

Sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute and the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University

The conference will take place at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School to launch the Global Catastrophic Risks collection of essays.

Deadline for registration is Monday, 19 May, 2008).

The evening of 17 July will be a welcome from Nick Bostrom and a keynote lecture. The conference will end with a half day’s programme on Sunday, 20 July.

This July 17-20, 2008 the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University will play host in Oxford to a number of leading experts on different global catastrophic risks. The conference is intended to advance knowledge and increase academic interest in this neglected area.

The conference will provide delegates with an overview of the key risks, and the state of current thinking on each of them. It will also be a forum to bring together scholars from many different disciplines to discuss the common problems and methodologies which affect the study of global catastrophic risks. Any scholar whose interest lies in issues which could potentially involve a catastrophe on a global scale will find the conference stimulating and relevant to their research.

Topics treated will include nuclear terrorism, cosmic threats such as supernova, comets and asteroids, the long term fate of the universe, pandemics, nanotechnology, ecological disasters which drastically reduce biodiversity, climate change, biotechnology and biosecurity, the cognitive biases associated with making judgements in the context of global catastrophic risk, social collapse, and the role of the insurance industry in mitigating and quantifying risk.

It is hoped that during the Conference discussions and networks will be created which will lead to more extensive collaborations that will treat global catastrophic risks as a field for research and as an issue requiring the engagement of the public and policy makers.