April 29, 2017 at 12:01PM
Human extinction is something that most people probably try not to dwell too much on, but a team at Cambridge University are devoting their lives to studying the matter.
Academics, lawyers, scholars, and philosophers at the university's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) are specifically focusing on how best to mitigate risks that could lead to human extinction or civilisational collapse.
Haydn Belfield, an academic project manager at CSER, told Business Insider that he and his peers are looking at risks associated with artificial intelligence, biotechnology, the environment, and to a lesser degree, natural risks.
"These are 'Global Catastrophic Risks' — defined as those that could kill at least 10% of the global population, or cause equivalent damage," he told Business Insider.
Here's a roundup of the areas they're focusing on:
An asteroid hitting Earth
The Earth is constantly being "hit" by asteroids but most of them are harmless as they're too small and they get broken up into dust or tiny grains of sand as they pass through our atmosphere. However, every now and again, a larger asteroid will collide with our planet.
Asteroids with a diameter in excess of 100m come into contact with Earth roughly every thousand years or so, while asteroids with a diameter in excess of 10km hit the Earth every 100 million years, according to Wired. Smaller asteroids with a diameter of less than 1m hit the Earth every year.
Type of risk: Natural (CSER is less concerned about these)
A supervolcano
Quietly lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is a "supervolcano" that has the potential to wipe out humans when it erupts.
There are several other "supervolcanoes" — volcanoes capable of an eruption that produces more than 240 cubic miles of magma — around the world that scientists and volcanologists are constantly watching, including the one at Lake Toba in Indonesia.
There have been three major volcanic eruptions at Yellowstone in the last 2 million years, according to the National Park Service (NPS), and two of them can be considered supervolcano events. The NPS writes on its website that another supervolcano eruption is possible but it is very unlikely in the next thousand or even 10,000 years.
The vast quantities of lava and ash that are spewed out of the Earth during supervolcano events have the potential to cause long-lasting climate change that could trigger a life-threatening ice age or global warming.
Type of risk: Natural (CSER is less concerned about these)
Solar flares
Explosions on the surface of the Sun can result in solar flares that have an impact on Earth. Every now and again, these solar flares are big enough to trigger geomagnetic storms that disable satellites and take out terrestrial power grids.
There is a one in eight chance of a catastrophic solar flare striking Earth by the year 2020, according to Wired.
Type of risk: Natural (CSER is less concerned about these)
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
No comments:
Post a Comment