Existential Threats: Climate Change, Digitalization, Biomedicalization
1.Short Description
Leading academicians, politicians, businessmen and activists seem to agree that humanity is facing a range of ‘existential threats’ that could lead to the end of human life (if not all life) on the planet. Following the relevant prioritizations of research centers that pioneer internationally in the study of existential threats, which put on the top “Threats from Artificial Intelligence”, “Extreme Threats and the Global Environment”, and “Biology, Biotechnology and Global Catastrophic Threats”, the Elective will focus on AI, ENVIRO, and BIO existential threats. The Elective will consider these three threats not only individually, but also in their intersections, interplays and interactions with additional existential threats the final aim being to provide a synthetic understanding of threats. Central to this synthesis is attention to AI, considering how it becomes rapidly integrated into all fields of science, engineering and medicine, as well as to all aspects of social life.
2. Areas/Directions
Existential Threats: Definitions, Classifications, Evaluations
Existential Threats: Research Responses and Resources
Existential Threats: STS Perspectives
Existential Threats: Critical Assessment of Relevant Reports and Studies
3. Examples of Thesis Topics
Engineering/Scientific evaluations of existential threats
Reports of national and international organizations on existential threats
Reports of academic and other institutes on existential threats
Regional/Local variations of existential threats
Gender, race, class and existential threats
4.Methods/Theories
To be completed
5.Core Literature Short List
-Perrow, C. (2001). Accidents, Normal, in International Encyclopedia of the Social &
Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier, 33–38.
-Schuster, J., Woods, D. (2021). ‘What is existential risk?’ in Calamity Theory: Three
Critiques of Existential Risk, University of Minnesota Press, Introduction.
-Torres, P. (2019). Existential risks: a philosophical analysis. Inquiry, 66(4), 614–639.
-Downer, J. (2024). Rational Accidents: Reckoning with Catastrophic Technologies,
The MIT Press.
-Fortun, Κ. et al. (2017). Researching Disaster from an STS Perspective, The
Handbook of Science and Technology Studies 4th Edition. Felt, U., Fouché, R.,
Miller, C., Smith-Doerr, E. (eds.), The MIT Press.
-Mitcham, C. (2021). “Engineering Existential Risks”, in Proceedings of American
Society for Engineering Education Virtual Annual Conference 2021: At Home with
Engineering Education, Volume 1, 26-29 July 2021, 20773-20780.
-Bianchi, F., Curry, A. C., & Hovy, D. (2023). Artificial Intelligence Accidents Waiting to Happen? Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 76, 193-199.
6. Organization of Introductory Course
It will be offered in the beginning of the Spring Semester at the Elective’s host institution (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
7. Potential Supervisors
Aristotle Tympas (elective coordinator), Professor, existential risks of relevance to AI, energy and sustainability
Katerina Vlantoni, Assistant Professor, existential risks of relevance to medicine, biomedicine, biotechnology
Contact
tympas@phs.uoa.gr
