Catastrophe: Risk and response
Oxford, 2004
Abstract
The possibility of human extinction due to various catastrophic events, from asteroid collisions to engineered pandemics, is a real and growing threat often dismissed as science fiction. Richard Posner argues for a fresh interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from law, economics, psychology, and the physical sciences, to assess and prevent these risks. He emphasizes the need for collaboration between scientists, policymakers, and the public, considering the psychological and cultural factors that hinder our understanding of these threats. Posner analyzes various potential catastrophes, including global warming, bioterrorism, and artificial intelligence, weighing risks and responses. He explores crucial questions about national sovereignty, civil liberties, resource allocation, and the need for reform in science policy and education. This book serves as a critical wake-up call, urging us to confront these existential threats with a comprehensive and collaborative approach.
Quotes from this work
“[T]he conversion of humans to more or less immortal near-gods” that David Friedman describe[s] as the upside of galloping twenty-first-century scientific advance […] seems rather a dubious plus, and certainly less of one than extinction would be a minus, especially since changing us into “near-gods” could be thought itself a form of extinction rather than a boon because of the discontinuity between a person and a near-god. We think of early hominids as having become extinct rather than as having become us.