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Global Catastrophic Risks Conference -
Programme

The Rhodes Trust Lecture theatre,

Saïd Business School, Oxford,

Please note that the programme is provisional at this stage and is subject to change - download (PDF)

Thursday, 17 July
6.00-6.15pm Registration in the Saïd Business School entrance hall
6.15pm-7.20pm Keynote lecture
Sir Crispin Tickell, ‘Humans: Past, Present and Future’
7.20pm Book launch and wine reception: Global Catastrophic Risks, eds. Nick Bostrom and Milan Cirkovic (OUP), Saïd Business School entrance hall
   
Friday, 18 July
09.30-10am Coffee and welcome
10.00am Introductory words by Nick Bostrom
Theme: Contexts
10.30am Jonathan Wiener, ‘The Tragedy of the Uncommons’
11.20 am Pause
11.25am Eliezer Yudkowsky, ‘Rationally Considering the End of the World’
12.15pm Pause
12.20pm Michelangelo Mangano, 'Expected and unexpected in the exploration of the fundamental laws of nature'
1.10pm Lunch
2.00pm James Hughes, ‘Avoiding Millennialist Cognitive Biases’
2.50pm Pause
2.55pm Peter Taylor, ‘Insurance and Catastrophes’
3.45pm Coffee
4.05pm Christopher Wills, ‘Disasters, Ecological Diversity, and the Future of Humanity’
4.55pm Pause
5.00pm Robin Hanson, 'Catastrophe, Social Collapse, and Human Extinction'
5.50pm End of day

Evening Optional Event:
Conference Dinner, at St Benet’s Hall

7.30pm Pre-dinner drinks
8.00pm Dinner
 
Saturday, 19 July
09.30-10am Coffee
Theme: Nature
10.00am David Morrison, ‘Cosmic Impacts: The Most Extreme Global Catastrophes’
10.45am Pause
10.50am Arnon Dar, ‘Cosmic Threats’
11.35pm Pause
11.40pm William Napier, ‘Hazards from Comets and Asteroids’
12.25pm Lunch
1.15pm Fred Adams, ‘Into the Dark: The Long Term Future of our Dying Universe’
2.05pm Pause
2.10pm John Oxford, ‘Social, Scientific and Medical Lessons from the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918’
3.00pm Pause
3.05pm Ali Nouri, ‘Biotechnology and Biosecurity: Preventing Risks While Preserving Benefits’
3.55pm Pause
Theme: Hostile Acts
4.00pm Joseph Cirincione, ‘The Continuing Threat of Nuclear War’
4.55pm Pause
5.00pm William Potter and Gary Ackerman, ‘Catastrophic Nuclear Terrorism: A Preventable Peril’
6.05pm End of day
Evening Optional Event
7.00-8.45pm Punting and Picnic. Meet at Magdalen Bridge punt station
 
Sunday, 20 July
09.30am Steve Rayner, ‘Culture and the Credibility of Catastrophe
10.20am Pause
Theme: Unintended Consequences
10.25am Eliezer Yudkowsky, ‘(Artificial) Intelligence: The Wild Card’
11.15am Coffee
11.35am Mike Treder and Chris Phoenix, ‘Small Machines, Big Choices: The Looming Impacts of Molecular Manufacturing’
12.20pm Rafaela Hillerbrand, Toby Ord and Anders Sandberg, ‘Probing the Improbable: Methodological Challenges for Risks with Low Probabilities and High Stakes’
1.00pm Lunch
1.50pm Dave Frame, ‘Climate Change, Catastrophe and Uncertainty’
2.40pm Milan Cirkovic: closing words
3.00pm Close