Future of Humanity Institute
FHI is a multidisciplinary research institute at the University of Oxford. Academics at FHI bring the tools of mathematics, philosophy and social sciences to bear on big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects. The Institute is led by Founding Director Professor Nick Bostrom.
Very often we are uncertain about what we ought, morally, to do. How should we make decisions in the face of such uncertainty? Moral Uncertainty, new book by William MacAskill, Toby Ord & Krister Bykvist, tackles this question. https://tinyurl.com/y5vebafq Decision-making in the face of fundamental moral uncertainty is underexplored terrain: William MacAskill, Krister Bykvist, and […]
Over the long run, technology has improved the human condition. Nevertheless, the economic progress from technological innovation has not arrived equitably or smoothly. While innovation often produces great wealth, it has also often been disruptive to labor, society, and world order. In light of ongoing advances in artificial intelligence (“AI”), we should prepare for the […]
Scientific and technological progress might change people’s capabilities or incentives in ways that would destabilize civilization. This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default, i.e. unless it has exited the “semi-anarchic default condition”.
The UN’s latest Human Development Report features a 7-page piece by Toby Ord on existential risk and the protection of humanity’s longterm potential. Toby said of the piece: I’ve long admired the HDR, and referred to it often when I worked on global poverty. So it’s great to be able to give something back, and […]
The Future of Humanity Institute’s Research Scholars Programme is hiring a second cohort of research scholars, likely to start in Spring 2021. It is a selective, two-year research programme, with lots of latitude for exploration as well as significant training and support elements. We will offer around eight salaried positions to early-career researchers who aim […]
