The Future of Humanity Institute is pleased to announce the results for the 2014 Thesis Prize Competition: Crucial Considerations for the Future of Humanity.
Entrants submitted a two-page ‘thesis proposal’ consisting of a 300 word abstract and an outline plan of a thesis on crucial considerations for humanity’s future. Professor Nick Bostrom, Dr Toby Ord and Dr Cecilia Tilli have reviewed all submitted entries.
We received many strong proposals for the competition; given the similar quality of several entries we have decided to leave the top prize vacant and distribute the prize money among runner-ups and honorary mentions.
Thank you to all contestants for participating!
Winner
Vacant
Runner-up
“Background Conditions for Human-Existential Risk Control”
Louis Fletcher, University of Cambridge
“Public Reason and Existential Catastrophe: Crucial Considerations for Justice as Fairness”
Patrick Kaczmarek, University of Glasgow
“Survival, Extinction and the Future of Humanity”
Henry Shevlin, CUNY Graduate Center
Honorary Mention
“Increasing Compassion to Reduce Existential Risk: A Global Initiative”
Luke Greeley, Rutgers University
“Empathy and its Limits”
Adam Lerner, Princeton University
“Why Moral Optimists Should Be Pessimistic About Artificial General Intelligence”
Amanda MacAskill, New York University
“Producing Dumb Animals: Crucial Considerations for Animal Diminishment”
Marcus Schultz-Bergin, Bowling Green State University