Includes bibliographical references and index.

Long-term astrophysical processes / Fred C. Adams -- Evolution theory and the future of humanity / Christopher Wills -- Millennial tendencies in responses to apocalyptic threats / James J. Hughes -- Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks / Eliezer Yudkowsky -- Observation selection effects and global catastrophic risks / Milan M. Ćirković -- Systems-based risk analysis / Yacov Y. Haimes -- Catastrophes and insurance / Peter Taylor -- Public policy toward catastrophe / Richard A. Posner -- Super-volcanism and other geophysical processes of catastrophic import / Michael R. Rampino -- Hazards from comets and asteroids / William Napier -- Influence of supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and cosmic rays on the terrestrial environment / Arnon Dar -- Climate change and global risk / David Frame and Myles R. Allen -- Plagues and pandemics : past, present, and future / Edwin Dennis Kilbourne -- Artificial Intelligence as a positive and negative factor in global risk / Eliezer Yudkowsky -- Big troubles, imagined and real / Frank Wilczek -- Catastrophe, social collapse, and human extinction / Robin Hanson -- The continuing threat of nuclear war / Joseph Cirincione -- Catastrophic nuclear terrorism : a preventable peril / Gary Ackerman and William C. Potter -- Biotechnology and biosecurity / Ali Nouri and Christopher F. Chyba -- Nanotechnology as global catastrophic risk / Chris Phoenix and Mike Treder -- The totalitarian threat / Bryan Caplan.

"In Global Catastrophic Risks 25 leading experts look at the gravest risks facing humanity in the 21st century, including natural catastrophes, nuclear war, terrorism, global warming, biological weapons, totalitarianism, advanced nanotechnology, general artificial intelligence, and social collapse. The book also addresses over-arching issues - policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes." "Bostrom pioneered the concept of existential risk and the simulation argument. He developed the first mathematically explicit theory of observation selection effects and is the author of a number of seminal studies on the implications of future technologies."--Jacket.

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