EXISTENTIAL RISK PREVENTION AS THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK FOR HUMANITY

ABSTRACT

Existential risks are those that threaten the entire future of humanity.  Many theories of
value imply that even relatively small reductions in net existential risk have enormous
expected value.  Despite their importance, issues surrounding human-extinction risks and
related hazards remain poorly understood.  In this paper, I clarify the concept of existential
risk and develop an improved classification scheme.  I discuss the relation between
existential risks and basic issues in axiology, and show how existential risk reduction (via the
maxipok rule) can serve as a strongly action-guiding principle for utilitarian concerns.  I also
show how the notion of existential risk suggests a new way of thinking about the ideal of
sustainability.

read on at: http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.pdf


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