Cambridge Long View Initiative
Supporting students and researchers in understanding humanity's journey through deep time — from our distant past to our potential future
WHY THE LONG-TERM FUTURE?
There are many different types of desirable futures humanity might pursue, ranging from "modest futures" focused on idyllic earthbound life, to expansionist futures focused on spreading through space, to futures centered on goals like maximizing happiness, abolishing suffering, or pursuing deep intellectual advancement through post-human evolution. The possible range of human futures is vast, and it’s incumbent upon us to explore and understand these possible futures.
WHAT DO WE DO?
OUR FOCUS AREAS
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AI Safety
New technologies present new opportunities for good, however, they are often associated with novel risks. Advanced agents more intelligent than ourselves present new challenges: How can we be sure to maintain control of the trajectory of the future as we continue to hand over decision-making processes to these systems? How do we govern the risks and power imbalances between nations and/or individual actors, as these systems come into existence?
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Biosecurity
Pandemics have blighted humanity for millennia, and Covid-19 has shown that we continue to be ill-prepared for these events. Meanwhile, advances in biotechnology have the potential to both drastically increase or decrease the risks from future pandemics, through improved pandemic prevention and response, or making dangerous pathogen research easier to conduct.
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Climate change
Climate change presents multiple potential existential or catastrophic consequences, both through tail risks of extreme warming and indirectly via affecting global stability, systems, and institutions. Evaluating and tackling these risks is crucial to ensure that the world can minimise the loss and damage from extreme climate change.
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Nuclear Security
Nuclear weapons that are armed at all times could kill tens of millions of people directly, and perhaps billions of people due to the subsequent effects on climate and crop growth. There is potential for extreme climate and crop effects during a possible ‘nuclear winter,’ which could lead to human extinction or irreversible societal change.