Risk, Uncertainty and Catastrophe Scenarios
Date: 8-10 May 2017
Location: Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University
Convenors: Kai Spiekermann and Simon Beard
Schedule
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8 May
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Public Lecture: Collective awareness: A vision of a new economics and how it could reduce risk
Doyne Farmer
Oxford Martin School
Winstanley lecture theatre, Trinity College, 6pm
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9-10 May
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Workshop: Risk, Uncertainty and Catastrophe Scenarios
The Pitt Building
Workshop programme
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10 May
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Public Lecture: Overpopulation: A driver of Climate Change?
Hilary Greaves
Future of Humanity Institute
Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College, 6pm
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Call for papers
View the workshop call for papers (deadline 24 March 2017).
Register
If you wish to attend the workshop, please register to Simon Beard by 1 May 2017.
Further information
Some scholars, most notably Martin Weitzman (2009; 2011) have warned that there is an uncertain chance of runaway climate change that could devastate the planet. At least since Hans Jonas’s The Imperative of Responsibility (1981), some have argued that even low-probability existential risks should be treated in a fundamentally different way. How should we act when we believe that there is some chance of a catastrophe, but cannot make reliable probability estimates (Elster 1979; Haller 2002; Gardiner 2005)? How much should we worry about worst-case scenarios? What should we do when experts disagree about whether catastrophe is possible?