ABOUT
OUR MISSION
Chronos is a network of students, researchers, and professors at the University of Cambridge interested safeguarding humanity's long-term flourishing and wellbeing.
Why the long-term future?
At Chronos, we recognize that the vast majority of human potential lies not in our present moment, but in the generations that could exist in humanity's future. The number of people alive today—8 billion—represents just a fraction of all the humans who could potentially live fulfilling lives in the centuries and millennia ahead.
Consider the scale: if humanity successfully harnesses solar system resources, conservative estimates suggest we could sustain a population of over 100 trillion people. Even at current Earth-based technology levels, we could support over 1 trillion people. Furthermore, humanity's development has accelerated dramatically, with global economic growth now exceeding 2% annually compared to under 0.1% for most of history. This trajectory suggests we're approaching a critical period that could determine our species' future. If this growth continues, we will need to expand beyond Earth and could become a space-faring civilization capable of harnessing the energy of entire stars. If it stops, we live at a unique moment of change before permanent stagnation or collapse.
Either scenario places us at an unprecedented moment in human history. The development of transformative technologies in the coming decades could permanently shape humanity's trajectory.
Through research, initiatives, and collaboration with other institutions, Chronos works to help humanity navigate these challenges wisely. We believe that safeguarding humanity's long-term potential may be the most important moral priority of our time.
OUR COLLABORATORS
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Existential Risk Alliance
ERA is a non-profit project running existential risk Summer Research Fellowships to equip the community of young researchers and entrepreneurs with the skills and the knowledge necessary to tackle existential risks
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Open Philanthropy
Open Philanthropy identifies outstanding giving opportunities, makes grants, follows the results, and publishes its findings. Its mission is to give as effectively as it can and share the findings openly so that anyone can build on them
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Centre for the Study of Existential Risks
The Centre for the Study of Existential Risks (CSER) is an interdisciplinary research centre within the University of Cambridge dedicated to the study and mitigation of existential risks as part of a collaborative, global community.
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BlueDot Impact
BlueDot Impact runs cohort-based courses that support participants in developing the knowledge, community and network needed to pursue a high-impact career.
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EA Cambridge
Effective Altruism Cambridge is a community of people in Cambridge trying to find the best opportunities to solve the world's biggest problems.
OUR TEAM
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
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DUNCAN MCCLEMENTS
PRESIDENT
Duncan McClements is a Research Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute and an economics student at King's College Cambridge. He is interested in using economic modelling and mechanism design to help promote long run growth and human flourishing, and writes the Model Thinking blog with Jason Hausenloy.
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OLIVIA BENOIT
DIRECTOR
Olivia is the Director of CERI and a master’s student in Economic & Social History. Olivia’s interest in x-risk evolved from historical reasoning: we might be at the beginning of human history, with billions or trillions of future lives to come.. Olivia is also interested in the relationship between economic theory and x-risk.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
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DEMETRIUS FLOUDAS
SENIOR ADVISOR
Demetrius A. Floudas has years of experience counselling governments and organisations on complex strategic issues. He holds an adjunct professorship in the Law Faculty at I. Kant Baltic Federal University, where he lectures on AI Risk Regulation, and is a Fellow of the Hellenic Institute of International & Foreign Law. In his capacity as Policy Lead for the Foreign Office, he helped design the telemedicine expansion policy in third countries during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Within CERI he focuses on nuclear security & AI safety and leverages his networks across academia, government, think-tanks & the University to amplify the Initiative’s impact. Moreover, as Senior Adviser, Prof. Floudas assists with organisational continuity and horizon-scanning for the Executive Committee.
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NANDINI SHIRALKAR
FOUNDER & STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Nandini is the Founder of CERI. She studied Information and Bioengineering at Cambridge, and also founded the ERA fellowship, which is a talent programme for mitigating risks from frontier AI models. She is especially interested in impact entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on projects at the intersection of socio-technical challenges. She enjoys writing poetry, reading science fiction and playing chess.
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RUDOLF LAINE
EX-PRESIDENT & AI SAFETY ADVISOR
Rudolf ran CERI in 2022-23, while studying computer science at Cambridge. He has an interest in anything that might have decisive effects on the long-term future of human civilization (conveniently including everything at CERI). Since CERI, he did MATS, ran the SAD project (Situational Awareness Dataset), a research paper on situational awareness in LLMs, and is exploring AI safety -related startups. You can read his writing at: www.strataoftheworld.com