An existential risk is a risk that is both global and terminal. Nick Bostrom defines it as a risk "where an adverse outcome would either annihilate Earth-originating intelligent life or permanently and drastically curtail its potential". The term is frequently used to describe disaster and doomsday scenarios caused by non-friendly superintelligence, misuse of molecular nanotechnology, or other sources of danger.

The Lifeboat Foundation was formed to prevent existential events from happening, as once they occur, humanity may have no possibility to correct the error. Unfortunately governments, and humanity in general, always react AFTER a disaster has happened, and some disasters will leave no survivors so we must react BEFORE they occur. We must be proactive.

The Lifeboat Foundation is developing programs to prevent existential events ("shields") as well as programs to preserve civilization ("preservers") to survive such events.

"Our approach to existential risks cannot be one of trial-and-error. There is no opportunity to learn from errors. The reactive approach – see what happens, limit damages, and learn from experience – is unworkable. Rather, we must take a proactive approach. This requires foresight to anticipate new types of threats and a willingness to take decisive preventive action and to bear the costs (moral and economic) of such actions."

Nick Bostrom

"We cannot rely on trial-and-error approaches to deal with existential risks... We need to vastly increase our investment in developing specific defensive technologies... We are at the critical stage today for biotechnology, and we will reach the stage where we need to directly implement defensive technologies for nanotechnology during the late teen years of this century... A self-replicating pathogen, whether biological or nanotechnology based, could destroy our civilization in a matter of days or weeks."

Ray Kurzweil

JOIN PROGRAMS DISCUSSION

The Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board is working on several programs to reduce existential risks. They are:

CURRENT PROGRAMS

AIShield
To protect against unfriendly AI (Artificial Intelligence).

AsteroidShield
To protect against devastating asteroid strikes.

BioShield
To protect against bioweapons and pandemics.

InternetShield
As the Internet grows in importance, an attack on it could cause physical as well as informational damage. An attack today on hospital systems or electric utilities could lead to deaths. In the future an attack could be used to alter the output that is produced by nanofactories worldwide leading to massive deaths.

LifeShield Bunkers
Developing fallback positions on Earth in case programs such as our BioShield and NanoShield fail globally or locally.

NanoShield
To protect against ecophages and nonreplicating nanoweapons.

ScientificFreedomShield
This shield strives to protect scientists from obstacles that would prevent latter day Max Plancks from completing their research.

SecurityPreserver
To prevent nuclear, biological, and nanotechnological attacks from occurring by using surveillance and sousveillance to identify terrorists before they are able to launch their attacks.

Space Habitats
To build fail-safes against global existential risks by encouraging the spread of sustainable human civilization beyond Earth.

FUTURE PROGRAMS

BioPreserver
To preserve animal life and diversity on the planet.

ClimateShield
To protect against global warming and other unwanted climate changes.

CommPreserver
Explores new communication technology for surviving existential events.

EnergyPreserver
If our civilization ran out of energy, it would grind to a halt, so Lifeboat Foundation is looking for solutions.

InfoPreserver
To preserve the information created by our civilization, including technology as well as art and culture.

LifePreserver
The program explores new life-extension methods, such as the work of Aubrey de Grey and Robert A. Freitas, Jr.

NeuroethicsShield
To prevent abuse in the areas of neuropharmaceuticals, neurodevices, and neurodiagnostics. Worst cases include enslaving the world's population or causing everyone to commit suicide.

NuclearShield
To prevent nuclear holocaust including destruction of entire cities.

ParticleAcceleratorShield
To prevent, and also make plans on surviving when possible, particle accelerator mishaps including quantum vacuum collapse, mining the quantum vacuum, formation of a stable strangelet, and the creation of artificial mini-black holes.

PersonalityPreserver
Methods of preserving persons — or just their personalities — include cryopreservation and uploading.

SeedPreserver
To preserve plant life and diversity on the planet by storing seeds in a safe location and other methods.

LONG RANGE PROGRAMS

AlienShield
To prevent annihilation by an alien race (biological or otherwise).

AntimatterShield
To prevent antimatter-based annihilation.

BlackHoleShield
To protect against black holes that are not manmade. This would include an "eye to the sky" program that would scan for signs of them.

GammaRayShield
To protect against gamma ray bursts.

SunShield
To protect against and/or cope with our sun becoming a red giant and other harmful fluctuations in its output.

RESOURCES

Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards by Nick Bostrom - Yale 2001 PDF version

How unlikely is a doomsday catastrophe? by Nick Bostrom and Max Tegmark - December 18, 2005.

Immortalist Utilitarianism by Michael Anissimov - May 2004

Memes and Rational Decisions by Michael Vassar - 2004

The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era by Vernor Vinge - San Diego 1993

Why the future doesn't need us by Bill Joy - Wired April 2000

BOOKS

Catastrophe : Risk and Response by Richard A. Posner - 2005

A Choice of Catastrophes by Isaac Asimov - 1981

The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction by John Leslie - 1998

Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century — On Earth and Beyond by Sir Martin Rees - 2003

The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead by Frank J. Tipler - 1997

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil - 2005