An Anthology of Global Risk
About this eBook
The volume curates a series of research articles, including previously published and unpublished work, exploring the nature and ethics of catastrophic global risk, the tools and methodologies being developed to study it, the diverse drivers that are currently pushing it to unprecedented levels of danger, and the pathways and opportunities for reducing this. In each case, they go beyond simplistic and reductionist accounts of risk to understand how a diverse range of factors interact to shape both catastrophic threats and our vulnerability and exposure to them and reflect on different stakeholder communities, policy mechanisms, and theories of change that can help to mitigate and manage this risk. Bringing together experts from across diverse disciplines, the anthology provides an accessible survey of the current state of the art in this emerging field.
The interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary nature of the cutting-edge research presented here makes this volume a key resource for researchers and academics. However, the editors have also prepared introductions and research highlights that will make it accessible to an interested general audience as well. Whatever their level of experience, the volume aims to challenge readers to take on board the extent of the multiple dangers currently faced by humanity, and to think critically and proactively about reducing global risk.
About the author
SJ Beard is a Senior Research Associate and Academic Programme Manager at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, an Associated Researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. SJ Beard works on the Evaluation of Extreme Technological Risks, and other ethical problems with ensuring a long term future for humanity. They also have a wide range of skills and experiences producing high quality research, training and analysis across education and public affairs.
Tom Hobson’s work is focused on understanding and mapping the militarisation of emerging technologies, particularly biological technologies. His research, more broadly, is concerned with understanding how scientific and expert communities and military and policy actors imagine the future, the ways that existing technologies shape their visions of the future, and how they endeavour to secure a particular vision of the future through technology and innovation. Tom’s work aims to guide norms and policy in the present by developing a better understanding of how future (extreme) technological risk can be (re)produced through innovation and technology. Tom has a background in International Relations, Security Studies and STS, having completed his PhD within the Centre for War & Technology at the University of Bath. He has also worked in policy, research and project assessment in the fields of biosecurity and synthetic biology.
