Global Catastrophic Risks [Hardcover]

Nick Bostrom (Editor), Milan M. Cirkovic (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0198570503 | ISBN-13: 978-0198570509

A global catastrophic risk is one with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. In human history, wars and plagues have done so on more than one occasion, and misguided ideologies and totalitarian regimes have darkened an entire era or a region. Advances in technology are adding dangers of a new kind. It could happen again.

In Global Catastrophic Risks 25 leading experts look at the gravest risks facing humanity in the 21st century, including asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts, Earth-based natural catastrophes, nuclear war, terrorism, global warming, biological weapons, totalitarianism, advanced nanotechnology, general artificial intelligence, and social collapse. The book also addresses over-arching issues - policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes.

This is invaluable reading for anyone interested in the big issues of our time; for students focusing on science, society, technology, and public policy; and for academics, policy-makers, and professionals working in these acutely important fields.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This volume is remarkably entertaining and readable...It's risk assessment meets science fiction. Natural Hazards Observer The book works well, providing a mine of peer-reviewed information on the great risks that threaten our own and future generations. Nature We should welcome this fascinating and provocative book. Martin J Rees (from foreword) [Provides] a mine of peer-reviewed information on the great risks that threaten our own and future generations. Nature

About the Author

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.

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 550 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198570503
• ISBN-13: 978-0198570509
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,056,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important September 25, 2008

By Peter McCluskey

Format:Hardcover

This is a relatively comprehensive collection of thoughtful essays about the risks of a major catastrophe (mainly those that would kill a billion or more people).
Probably the most important chapter is the one on risks associated with AI, since few people attempting to create an AI seem to understand the possibilities it describes. It makes some implausible claims about the speed with which an AI could take over the world, but the argument they are used to support only requires that a first-mover advantage be important, and that is only weakly dependent on assumptions about that speed with which AI will improve.
The risks of a large fraction of humanity being killed by a super-volcano is apparently higher than the risk from asteroids, but volcanoes have more of a limit on their maximum size, so they appear to pose less risk of human extinction.
The risks of asteroids and comets can't be handled as well as I thought by early detection, because some dark comets can't be detected with current technology until it's way too late. It seems we ought to start thinking about better detection systems, which would probably require large improvements in the cost-effectiveness of space-based telescopes or other sensors.
Many of the volcano and asteroid deaths would be due to crop failures from cold weather. Since mid-ocean temperatures are more stable that land temperatures, ocean based aquaculture would help mitigate this risk.
The climate change chapter seems much more objective and credible than what I've previously read on the subject, but is technical enough that it won't be widely read, and it won't satisfy anyone who is looking for arguments to justify their favorite policy. The best part is a list of possible instabilities which appear unlikely but which aren't understood well enough to evaluate with any confidence.
The chapter on plagues mentions one surprising risk - better sanitation made polio more dangerous by altering the age at which it infected people. If I'd written the chapter, I'd have mentioned Ewald's analysis of how human behavior influences the evolution of strains which are more or less virulent.
There's good news about nuclear proliferation which has been under-reported - a fair number of countries have abandoned nuclear weapons programs, and a few have given up nuclear weapons. So if there's any trend, it's toward fewer countries trying to build them, and a stable number of countries possessing them. The bad news is we don't know whether nanotechnology will change that by drastically reducing the effort needed to build them.
The chapter on totalitarianism discusses some uncomfortable tradeoffs between the benefits of some sort of world government and the harm that such government might cause. One interesting claim:
totalitarian regimes are less likely to foresee disasters, but are in some ways better-equipped to deal with disasters that they take seriously.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing July 18, 2010

By Ian

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a most disappointing volume. I bought it expecting so much, from Oxford, that great source and fount, from supposed young intellectually virile editors located in supposedly buzz centres of excellence. Big flop. For me the best papers were the most irrelevant: the ones that dealt with what's going to happen to us on the billion year time scale or alternatively if the wildest space objects have a say in our future. Too many other papers seemed to say so much that was unsurprising, unhelpful and I have to say sadly, pretentious. Maths used to no good or insightful end in some of that latter group, presumably just to show off ( e.g the Drake equation in a context that just baffles me for relevance).

I may be wrong but as the volume proceeded I gained the growing impression there was an increase in lack of comprehension among authors about what meaningful they could actually say about the topics they'd been assigned. Perhaps I'm harsh, but I did not enjoy this read - or learn much from it. Final pedantic: for OUP, too many glitches and typos, obviously beneath the dignity of the young high flying editors to bother with.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Catalyst for Ideas and Actions August 23, 2008

By R. B. Cathcart

Format:Hardcover

Individual and government policy instigators everywhere, starting with voting citizens, must face the common problem of bringing expert knowledge to bear on globalized public policy-making. This book is rather like a "think tank" in and of itself and could serve such a purpose successfully! Campaigning in 1912, the intellectual and soon-to-be-US President Woodrow Wilson commented that "What I fear is a government of experts". Yet, in the 21st Century, the world-public has to have the best possible advice on macro-problems that can, may or certainly will impact human society. The Canadian scientist Vaclav Smil, in GLOBAL CATASTROPHES AND TRENDS: THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS (2008) has also foreseen, along with the stellar topic-centered name writers in this excellent revelatory text,the necessity of focused individuals, investigative panels and advisory bodies helping the world-public. None express a desire or need to "rule the world", the stealing of choices from the world-public, or the foreclosure of world-public options for future life-styles! However, they do a masterful job of explicating the macro-problems developing, impending or forecastable. The well-edited prose, informative diagrams and necessary illustrations are simply awe-inspiring! This demonstrative text--by no means to be considered a textbook--is fascinating, alarming, inspiring and just plain delicious reading. I reccommend it as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10!!