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Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:39:17 -0400
Global Catastrophic Risks Conference, Oxford, 17-20 July 2008
Hosted by the Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford
The conference will bring together leading experts working in a number
of different disciplines, but who all study possible catastrophes that
would inflict serious damage to human well-being on a global scale. The
conference will provide delegates with an overview of the key risks and
the state of current thinking on each of them. It will also be a forum
to bring together scholars from different disciplines to discuss the
common problems and methodologies which affect the study of global
catastrophic risks.
Topics treated will include:
* Nuclear terrorism
* Cosmic threats such as supernova, comets and asteroids
* The long term fate of the universe
* Pandemics
* Nanotechnology
* Ecological disasters which drastically reduce biodiversity
* Climate change
* Biotechnology and biosecurity
* The cognitive biases associated with making judgements in the
context of global catastrophic risk
* Social collapse
* The role of the insurance industry in mitigating and quantifying
risk.
Visit http://www.global-catastrophic-risks.com <http://www.global-catastrophic-risks.com/> for more detailed information about our speakers and their lectures and to register for
the conference. The deadline for registration is Monday, 26 May, 2008.
The registration form (as .doc and .pdf) and the conference poster are
also available as attachments to this email.
The conference programme will be added to the website at the beginning
of May. Any other enquiries should be directed to Victoria Bristow, the
Conference Coordinator, at risks@philosophy.ox.ac.uk.
Best wishes,
Dr Nick Bostrom, Director, Future of Humanity Institute, University of
Oxford
Dr Rafaela Hillerbrand, Research Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute,
University of Oxford
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The Future of Humanity Institute
The Future of Humanity Institute <http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/index.html> is a multidisciplinary Research Institute at the University of Oxford
and is part of the Philosophy Faculty <http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/> and the James Martin 21st Century School <http://www.21school.ox.ac.uk/> . FHI's mission is to bring excellent scholarship to bear on big
picture questions for humanity. One of our research areas
<http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/research.html> is global catastrophic risk.
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All enquiries regarding the conference should be directed to the
Conference Coordinator, at risks@philosophy.ox.ac.uk.