A common existential risk from advanced technologies

Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and advanced high-energy particle physics experiments present a common existential risk: that of the creation of weapons that could destroy human civilization by killing large numbers of people over a wide area in a very short time period.<br><br>\------------------------<br><br>**Artificial Intelligence.** Most recently, the existence of technological weapons of mass destruction has attracted popular attention with the publication of the movie "Transcendent Man" and the book "Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence." [1] This is not a new concern. In 1960, C.P. Snow wrote in his essay "The Moral Unconscious," "We are in the process of creating a monster." [2] Yehoshua Bar-Hillel [3] wrote several essays in the early 1960s expressing similar concerns. [4] We might consider the three of them to be technological Cassandras.<br><br>Even popular media has communicated such concerns to a wide audience. The movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" depicts a computerized artificial intelligence system that decides to kill all humans aboard a spaceship. [5] The movie "The Terminator" depicts a future in which an artificial intelligence system decides to kill all humans. [6] An article in *Time* magazine has likened death resulting from advanced technologies to death from nuclear war and global warming as one of three potential causes of human extinction. [7]<br><br>\------------------------<br><br>[1] Bostrom, Nick. 2017. *Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.* Basic Books.<br><br>[2] Snow, C.P. 1961. The Moral Unconscious. *Technology Review,* *63,* 14-18.<br><br>[3] Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua. 1964. *Language and Information: Selected Essays on Their Theory and Application,* 289-309. Addison-Wesley.<br><br>[4] Weizenbaum, Joseph. 1976. *Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation.* W. H. Freeman and Company.<br><br>[5] Kubrick, Stanley, and Clarke, Arthur C. 1968. *2001: A Space Odyssey.* New American Library.<br><br>[6] Cameron, James. 1984. *The Terminator.* Orion Pictures.<br><br>[7] Walsh, Bryan. 2009. How Technology Could Kill Us. *Time,* *174,* 48.