This book reflects on work done through the Managing Extreme Technological Risk (METR) project, a pioneering research programme within the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge. METR has been both an exercise in 'academic engineering' to address major global challenges, and a research programme that extends beyond traditional academic outputs into methodological development and innovative forms of expert engagement and outreach.

Managing Extreme Technological Risk explores how the METR programme developed a model that is needed to effectively understand risks to the survival of humanity, as well as their management and mitigation. It reflects on the challenges faced and lessons learned in the process of building a research community focused on this aim. This book brings together findings and future considerations from a key formative phase, not just for the Centre, but for the field of existential risk and aligned areas of research as a whole. It relates the story of this journey and outlines some of the programme's specific findings. There is an overall focus on what has been learnt for approaching the study of existential risk and how this can, and must, be taken forward by others, urgently and at scale.

Contents:

• About the Editor


• About the Contributors


• List of Figures


• List of Tables


• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms


• Introduction to Managing Extreme Technological Risk (Catherine Rhodes)


• Extreme Risk and the Culture of Science: Two Challenges (Lalitha S Sundaram and Adrian Currie)


• Risk and Scientific Reputation: Lessons from Cold Fusion (Huw Price)


• Foreseeing Extreme Technological Risk (Luke Kemp)


• Evaluating Extreme Technological Risk: A Social Contract Based Approach (S J Beard and Patrick Kaczmarek)


• Responsibility and the Management of Extreme Technological Risk: Bio(techno)logical Risk (Catherine Rhodes)


• A Decade of Responsible Innovation by the AI Community 2012–2022: Analysing Recent Achievements and Future Prospects (Haydn Belfield)


• From Evaluation to Action: Ethics, Epistemology, and Extreme Technological Risk (Lalitha S Sundaram, Matthijs M Maas, and S J Beard)


• Index

Readership: Researchers, policy makers, technologists, and regulators interested in risk management/governance and management of specific areas of risk (e.g. artificial intelligence, biological risks, climate change) and what can be learnt across different sectors. General public with an interest in major risks facing humanity. The 'Effective Altruism' community, for which addressing existential risks is considered a major cause area.

Key Features:

• The urgency of addressing the most significant threats to humanity's future is increasingly recognized not only by scholars but also by policy makers and the general public


• Instead of focusing on delineating or classifying existential and global catastrophic risk, this book examines the process of building a research community aimed at gaining effective understanding of such risks