Existential Threats: Climate Change, Digitalization, Biomedicalization

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece

General Description

Leading academics, politicians, business people and activists agree that humanity faces a range of ‘existential threats’ that could end human (if not all) life on the planet. Following the prioritisations of research centres pioneering the study of existential threats – which rank “Threats from Artificial Intelligence”, “Extreme Threats and the Global Environment”, and “Biology, Biotechnology and Global Catastrophic Threats” at the top – this elective focuses on AI, environmental and biological existential threats, considering them individually and in their intersections, with attention to how AI is rapidly integrated into all fields of science, engineering, medicine and social life.

Areas and Directions

Existential threats: definitions, classifications and evaluations; research responses and resources; STS perspectives; and critical assessment of relevant reports and studies.