Catastrophic Seminar Gets Underway

We're at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, on a gorgeous fall day, for our seminar on GLOBAL CATASTROPHIC RISKS: Building a Resilient Civilization.

The forecast here says: "Abundant sunshine. Near record high temperatures. High 82F. WSW winds shifting to N at 10 to 20 mph."

Inside the building, though, the forecast is not nearly so sunny. We're listening to experts in various fields tell us whether human civilization should prepare to experience existential outcomes in this century, or merely catastrophic outcomes -- or, perhaps, enough resiliency building that neither will occur.

So far, Anders Sandberg and Jamais Cascio have made presentations, and now Eliezer Yudkowsky has the floor. Because I'm a co-host of the event, and also a presenter this afternoon, I won't be able to live-blog the seminar; however, the whole thing is being videotaped and eventually will be posted online for free viewing.

Mike Treder