Donate
Donate
Donate

Beckstead Reprise Lecture Audio Online

by | 4 October 2013

By Seth Baum

By Seth Baum

The mp3 audio file for Nick Beckstead’s reprise lecture is now online here. The reprise lecture was held 28 Aug 2013, titled On The Overwhelming Importance Of Shaping The Far Future. An online summary for the original lecture is already online here.

The audio file has been edited to remove sections in which the call was temporarily disconnected and other audio issues. However, we left in several stretches in which the audio is inaudible or marginally audible. We want it to be known that while the audio for our online lectures overall works quite well, it is also not always perfect.

The Beckstead lecture is the first and so far only of our online lectures to have an audio recording. We will say more about our lecture recording policy in a separate blog post.

Author

<a href="https://threeatetwo.com/website_79380c4c/author/seth-baum/" target="_self">Seth Baum</a>

Seth Baum

Recent Publications

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

by | 30 July 2024

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? This paper, published in the journal Futures, addresses the question by examining the definition of global catastrophic risk and by comparing climate change to another severe global risk, nuclear winter. The paper concludes that yes, climate change is a global catastrophic risk, and potentially a significant one.

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

by | 3 July 2024

For over 50 years, experts have worried about the risk of AI taking over the world and killing everyone. The concern had always been about hypothetical future AI systems—until recent LLMs emerged. This paper, published in the journal Risk Analysis, assesses how close LLMs are to having the capabilities needed to cause takeover catastrophe.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

by , | 17 June 2024

Diversity is a major ethics concept, but it is remarkably understudied. This paper, published in the journal Inquiry, presents a foundational study of the ethics of diversity. It adapts ideas about biodiversity and sociodiversity to the overall category of diversity. It also presents three new thought experiments, with implications for AI ethics.

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

by | 30 July 2024

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? This paper, published in the journal Futures, addresses the question by examining the definition of global catastrophic risk and by comparing climate change to another severe global risk, nuclear winter. The paper concludes that yes, climate change is a global catastrophic risk, and potentially a significant one.

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

by | 3 July 2024

For over 50 years, experts have worried about the risk of AI taking over the world and killing everyone. The concern had always been about hypothetical future AI systems—until recent LLMs emerged. This paper, published in the journal Risk Analysis, assesses how close LLMs are to having the capabilities needed to cause takeover catastrophe.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

by , | 17 June 2024

Diversity is a major ethics concept, but it is remarkably understudied. This paper, published in the journal Inquiry, presents a foundational study of the ethics of diversity. It adapts ideas about biodiversity and sociodiversity to the overall category of diversity. It also presents three new thought experiments, with implications for AI ethics.