We organized a talk program in collaboration with Gandaki Province Academy of Science and Technology (GPAST) which focused on the End of the World - Existential Threats to Humanity. The Speaker, Jordan Tirrell, PhD who is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Washington College, USA shared his research and insights on the topic.
Abstract of the talk:
Humanity has survived asteroids, super volcanoes, and other natural events for two hundred thousand years. In just the last hundred years, we developed technologies that enable us to end the world. During the Cuban missile crisis, JFK famously estimated the probability of nuclear war to be as high as a 50/50 coin toss. Today we live in a world with nuclear weapons, climate change, global pandemics, and other threats of our own making. Emerging fields like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence may soon present even greater risks. What are possible paths to existential catastrophe, how can we think about the likelihood of an unprecedented event, and how can we mitigate the risks? We may have survived a coin toss in the last century. Will humanity’s luck run out, or can we persist for many more millennia?
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