Pluralisms in Existential Risk

What are different approaches to the study and management of global risk?

• How can dialogues within the field be more constructive?

• What do existential risk studies need as it continues to grow and mature?

As the field of Existential Risk Studies continues to grow and mature, the workshop considered many different ways in which approaches to the study and management of global risk differ and how we could prompt more constructive dialogues within the field to improve it. Speakers addressed a wide range of issues including the disciplinary nature of Existential Risk Studies, the methods it had generated to study extreme and unprecedented future possibilities, narratives of Existential and Global Catastrophic Risk, ethical evaluations of humanity’s future, and different approaches to risk governance and mitigation. The workshop concluded with consideration of a range of concrete proposals for how we move forwards towards a community adapted to its purposes, including how the field is funded, the development of future researchers, prospects of greater collaboration between research centres (such as CSER, FHI, SERI, and MIMIR), and how to facilitate further constructive conversations between researchers with different perspectives and worldviews. Following the conclusion of the workshop a group of attendees drafted a statement on pluralism in ERS which was co-signed by leading researchers in the field and can be read here.