"Maniacs, Misanthropes, and Omnicidal Terrorists: Reassessing the Agential Risk Framework"

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Agential risks are the those that arise when agents willing to destroy the world collide with the technological ability to do this. Previous work on agential risks focused on the identities and motives of risky agents. This chapter explores the various aims that such agents might have, which constitute a distinct axis that is largely orthogonal to that of motives. In particular, I propose a novel typology of agential risks based on four possible goals: (i) killing a large portion of the human population; (ii) destroying civilization; (iii) triggering global violence and/or an apocalyptic war; and (iv) causing human extinction. Many risky agents identify only one of these as their ultimate goal, although they are of course not mutually exclusive. After providing a number of historical examples within each category, I turn to a different question, namely, “If a global catastrophe were to have happened, who would be most responsible?” This introduces Luke Kemp’s concept of “Agents of Doom,” which offers an alternative perspective to the agential risk approach that I first proposed in 2018. However, I suggest that these frameworks should be integrated, as successfully navigating the obstacle course of twenty-first-century death traps will require addressing both phenomena.

Type of resource	text
Date modified	September 14, 2023; September 14, 2023; September 14, 2023
Publication date	September 14, 2023; September 14, 2023

Author	Torres, Emile

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/gv769bs1452
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/gv769bs1452

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND).

Preferred citation: Torres, E. (2023). "Maniacs, Misanthropes, and Omnicidal Terrorists: Reassessing the Agential Risk Framework" in Intersections, Reinforcements, Cascades: Proceedings of the 2023 Stanford Existential Risks Conference. The Stanford Existential Risks Initiative. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/gv769bs1452. https://doi.org/10.25740/gv769bs1452.

Intersections, Reinforcements, Cascades: The Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Stanford Existential Risks Conference

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