Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter

We look at classifying extinction risks in three different ways, which affect how we can intervene to reduce risk. First, how does it start causing damage? Second, how does it reach the scale of a global catastrophe? Third, how does it reach everyone? In all of these three phases there is a defence...

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Main Authors: Cotton-Barratt, O, Daniel, M, Sandberg, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2020
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author Cotton-Barratt, O
Daniel, M
Sandberg, A
author_facet Cotton-Barratt, O
Daniel, M
Sandberg, A
author_sort Cotton-Barratt, O
collection OXFORD
description We look at classifying extinction risks in three different ways, which affect how we can intervene to reduce risk. First, how does it start causing damage? Second, how does it reach the scale of a global catastrophe? Third, how does it reach everyone? In all of these three phases there is a defence layer that blocks most risks: First, we can prevent catastrophes from occurring. Second, we can respond to catastrophes before they reach a global scale. Third, humanity is resilient against extinction even in the face of global catastrophes. The largest probability of extinction is posed when all of these defences are weak, that is, by risks we are unlikely to prevent, unlikely to successfully respond to, and unlikely to be resilient against. We find that it’s usually best to invest significantly into strengthening all three defence layers. We also suggest ways to do so tailored to the classes of risk we identify. Lastly, we discuss the importance of underlying risk factors – events or structural conditions that may weaken the defence layers even without posing a risk of immediate extinction themselves.
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spelling oxford-uuid:50db8172-498e-41c0-a5a4-b9eb60fbcd042022-03-26T16:16:04ZDefence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matterJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:50db8172-498e-41c0-a5a4-b9eb60fbcd04EnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2020Cotton-Barratt, ODaniel, MSandberg, AWe look at classifying extinction risks in three different ways, which affect how we can intervene to reduce risk. First, how does it start causing damage? Second, how does it reach the scale of a global catastrophe? Third, how does it reach everyone? In all of these three phases there is a defence layer that blocks most risks: First, we can prevent catastrophes from occurring. Second, we can respond to catastrophes before they reach a global scale. Third, humanity is resilient against extinction even in the face of global catastrophes. The largest probability of extinction is posed when all of these defences are weak, that is, by risks we are unlikely to prevent, unlikely to successfully respond to, and unlikely to be resilient against. We find that it’s usually best to invest significantly into strengthening all three defence layers. We also suggest ways to do so tailored to the classes of risk we identify. Lastly, we discuss the importance of underlying risk factors – events or structural conditions that may weaken the defence layers even without posing a risk of immediate extinction themselves.
spellingShingle Cotton-Barratt, O
Daniel, M
Sandberg, A
Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter
title Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter
title_full Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter
title_fullStr Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter
title_full_unstemmed Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter
title_short Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter
title_sort defence in depth against human extinction prevention response resilience and why they all matter
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AT danielm defenceindepthagainsthumanextinctionpreventionresponseresilienceandwhytheyallmatter
AT sandberga defenceindepthagainsthumanextinctionpreventionresponseresilienceandwhytheyallmatter