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Prepare to meet your maker: Will humans become extinct at our own hand?

'Error or terror'

Lord Rees also highlights concerns about synthetic biology.
"With every new technology there are upsides, but there are also risks," he says.
The creation of new organisms for agriculture and medicine could have unforeseen ecological side-effects, he suggests.
Lord Rees raises concerns about the social fragility and lack of resilience in our technology-dependent society.
"It's a question of scale. We're in a more inter-connected world, more travel, news and rumours spread at the speed of light. Therefore the consequences of some error or terror are greater than in the past," he says.
Lord Rees, along with Cambridge philosopher Huw Price and economist Sir Partha Dasgupta and Skype founder Jaan Tallinn, wants the proposed Centre for the Study of Existential Risk to evaluate such threats.
So should we be worried about an impending doomsday?
This isn't a dystopian fiction. It's not about a cat-stroking villain below a volcano. In fact, the institute in Oxford is in university offices above a gym, where self-preservation is about a treadmill and Lycra.
Dr Bostrom says there is a real gap between the speed of technological advance and our understanding of its implications.
"We're at the level of infants in moral responsibility, but with the technological capability of adults," he says.
As such, the significance of existential risk is "not on people's radars".
But he argues that change is coming whether or not we're ready for it.
"There is a bottleneck in human history. The human condition is going to change. It could be that we end in a catastrophe or that we are transformed by taking much greater control over our biology.
"It's not science fiction, religious doctrine or a late-night conversation in the pub.
"There is no plausible moral case not to take it seriously."
 
By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent

Chain reaction

This eclectic group of researchers talk about computers able to create more and more powerful generations of computers.
It won't be that these machines suddenly develop a line in sarcasm and bad behaviour. But research fellow Daniel Dewey talks about an "intelligence explosion" where the accelerating power of computers becomes less predictable and controllable.
"Artificial intelligence is one of the technologies that puts more and more power into smaller and smaller packages," says Mr Dewey, a US expert in machine super-intelligence who previously worked at Google.
Along with biotechnology and nanotechnology, he says: "You can do things with these technologies, typically chain reaction-type effects, so that starting with very few resources you could undertake projects that could affect everyone in the world."
The Future of Humanity project at Oxford is part of a trend towards focusing research on such big questions. The institute was launched by the Oxford Martin School, which brings together academics from across different fields with the aim of tackling the most "pressing global challenges".
There are also ambitions at Cambridge University to investigate such threats to humanity.
Lord Rees, the Astronomer Royal and former president of the Royal Society, is backing plans for a Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.
"This is the first century in the world's history when the biggest threat is from humanity," says Lord Rees.
He says that while we worry about more immediate individual risks, such as air travel or food safety, we seem to have much more difficulty recognising bigger dangers.

Unintended consequences

These are not abstract concepts.
Seán O'Heigeartaigh, a geneticist at the institute, draws an analogy with algorithms used in automated stock market trading.
These mathematical strings can have direct and destructive consequences for real economies and real people.
Such computer systems can "manipulate the real world", says Dr O'Heigeartaigh, who studied molecular evolution at Trinity College Dublin.
In terms of risks from biology, he worries about misguided good intentions, as experiments carry out genetic modifications, dismantling and rebuilding genetic structures.
"It's very unlikely they would want to make something harmful," he says.
But there is always the risk of an unintended sequence of events or something that becomes harmful when transferred into another environment.
"We are developing things that could go wrong in a profound way," he says.
"With any new powerful technology we should think very carefully about what we know - but it might be more important to know what we don't have certainty about."
And he says this isn't a career in scaremongering, he's motivated by the seriousness of his work. "This is one of the most important ways of making a positive difference," he says.

Lack of control

Likening it to a dangerous weapon in the hands of a child, he says the advance of technology has overtaken our capacity to control the possible consequences.
Experiments in areas such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology and machine intelligence are hurtling forward into the territory of the unintended and unpredictable.
Synthetic biology, where biology meets engineering, promises great medical benefits. But Dr Bostrom is concerned about unforeseen consequences in manipulating the boundaries of human biology.
Nanotechnology, working at a molecular or atomic level, could also become highly destructive if used for warfare, he argues. He has written that future governments will have a major challenge to control and restrict misuses.
There are also fears about how artificial or machine intelligence interact with the external world.
Such computer-driven "intelligence" might be a powerful tool in industry, medicine, agriculture or managing the economy.
But it also can be completely indifferent to any incidental damage.

What are the greatest global threats to humanity? Are we on the verge of our own unexpected extinction?

An international team of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute is investigating the biggest dangers.
And they argue in a research paper, Existential Risk as a Global Priority, that international policymakers must pay serious attention to the reality of species-obliterating risks.
Last year there were more academic papers published on snowboarding than human extinction.
The Swedish-born director of the institute, Nick Bostrom, says the stakes couldn't be higher. If we get it wrong, this could be humanity's final century.
Been there, survived it

So what are the greatest dangers?
First the good news. Pandemics and natural disasters might cause colossal and catastrophic loss of life, but Dr Bostrom believes humanity would be likely to survive.
This is because as a species we've already outlasted many thousands of years of disease, famine, flood, predators, persecution, earthquakes and environmental change. So the odds remain in our favour.
And in the time frame of a century, he says the risk of extinction from asteroid impacts and super-volcanic eruptions remains "extremely small".
Even the unprecedented self-inflicted losses in the 20th Century in two world wars, and the Spanish flu epidemic, failed to halt the upward rise in the global human population.
Nuclear war might cause appalling destruction, but enough individuals could survive to allow the species to continue.
If that's the feelgood reassurance out of the way, what should we really be worrying about?
Dr Bostrom believes we've entered a new kind of technological era with the capacity to threaten our future as never before. These are "threats we have no track record of surviving".

Osama10: This man is so clueless, Toyota has the highest number of vehicles in Nigeria.

The Toyota Hiace bus makes about 80% of buses plying our roads, that simply counts for the number of accidents involving them.

He should be concerned about the state of our death trap roads.

Pot holes everywhere, no road signs on our roads and you want to prevent accidents.

No he is not clueless.
He has simply provided a piece of analysis here.
I wonder where you got your 80% from.
In any case notice he stressed that the crashes result in a high percentage of fire incidence (31%) which is worrisome.
I'm not sure you've noticed that our model of Toyota Hiace is rarely used in any first world country apart from Japan (that makes it) and I think Hong Kong.
I agree our roads are not the best but I believe he took a step in the right direction.
Toyota should find a way to make the HiAce safer.

Does anyone know the state of the airport road (between orthopaedic hospital to Emene).
It's been closed for some time now.
What of the secretariat?

Very thoughtfully written article.
I have nursed the same worries.
I'll still vote for Soludo.
He is the best candidate.
Where he comes from doesn't matter.
We must stand up for good governance.

Toyota Camry 2.2 1998-2004
Very ubiquitous
Very reliable
Very boring

A pair of twins who were adopted by separate families as babies got married without knowing they were brother and sister, a peer told the House of Lords.
A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord Alton said.

The peer - who heard of the case from a judge who was involved - said the twins felt an "inevitable attraction".

He said the case showed how important it was for children to be able to find out about their biological parents.

Details of the identities of the twins involved have been kept secret, but Lord Alton said the pair did not realise they were related until after their marriage.


The crossbench peer, a former Liberal Democrat MP, raised the couple's case during a House of Lords debate on the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill in December.

"They were never told that they were twins," he told the Lords.

"They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."

He told the BBC News website that their story raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/7182817.stm

agbameta: You can rage, go crazy and even kill yourself with all your petty hate, bitterness and jealousy, Liberty is in the history books including your county's history and publications as the first stadium in Black Africa.

Just too sad how vagrants and people like you with lack of self worth and belonging belittle and deny your own pride and great history just to give to another country because of hate and bitterness.

This is why you people don't progress, this is why your villages are still caves.

Ibadan remains in our history books as a pioneer city with many firsts in Africa, something you can not say about your hell hole combined... That right there is your reality and downfall...

Eiyaah
This one pepper you well.
I simply provided a link to dispute your bogus claims and you go berserk.
All I need you to do is stop perpetrating the lies your fathers told you to your future generation.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
I can see you've cunningly changed it to black Africa, if I provide another link now you'll change it to West Africa, and then Nigeria, then Oyo state.
My history books did not tell me any such thing.
I'm a fan of correcting misinformation.
You never know who is reading.

primeson1: Liberty Stadium , the first
stadium in Africa. The first citadel of higher
learning, University of Ibadan (formerly the
University College of Ibadan), and the first
teaching hospital in Nigeria, University College
Hospital , UCH, were both built in this ancient
but, highly important city. Ibadan is also
home to the legendary Shooting Stars FC -- a
professional Football Club.

source: http://www.world66.com/africa/nigeria/ibadan

Do you seriously believe that Africa was such a dark continent, that a substandard stadium like that was the first?
Below is a link with a list of stadiums in Egypt.
Note that there is one with a capacity of about 20,000 in Alexandria built in 1929 when Ibadan was still dotted with thatch houses.
Stop making bogus claims,
Pls.
http://www.worldstadiums.com/middle_east/countries/egypt.shtml

agbameta: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5275/5885912193_a48823319e.jpg

The Liberty Stadium now renamed
Obafemi Awolowo Stadium is a historic
25,000 seat football stadium based in the
city of Ibadan, Nigeria. It was the first
stadium to be built in Africa. Ibadan also
boasts of the first radio and television
stations in Africa. The first live broadcast
was from Ibadan by Madam Anike Agbaje-
Williams the first face on television in
Africa.

Why are u pple fond of laying bogus claims.
What do you mean by first stadium built in Africa?
Pls Africa does not span from Adoekiti to Oshogbo.
There are much older stadia in Egypt, etc.
First face on which television?!
Next you'll tell me Ekiti has the highest number of professors in Nigeria.
I was enjoying the pictures of shoeless folks on shorts trekking about till u came and spoilt it with your claims

Thank goodness Chelshait lost
I can have peace free of noise from their tout fans.
Lukaku I love you
Martinez I love you
Referee I love you
Imagine winner of 2nd rate Europa coming to rub shoulders with authentic champions
mscheeeeeeeeeew.

Opey4luv: Hmmm RIP to all those who died serving their father's land. The Labour of our past heroes shall not be in vein.

Nor shall they be in artery.

clip: . The cross of the matter is that they should not collect bribe. If they do not collect bribe from the smugglers God will always protect them in days like this.

No be only cross what of rosary.

Our team was tired and burnt out.
The Senegalese team were more fit.
You could see we made a good come back in the last quarter because we had more experience, but we were just too fatigued to go the last mile.

Ngr 37
Seen 35
Close
End of Q2

Ngr 37
Seen 35
Close

NG 25
Seen 16
End of Q1

CIV 24
CMR 20

Cote d'ivore vs Cameroon about to start
Promises to be interesting

What time is Nigeria's game against Senegal?

Nigeria 112
CAF 75
Okoye 29
Diogu 22
Olawasere 14

Nigeria 96
CAF 61

Okoye is on faya!
3 pointers in quick succession.
Nigeria 58pts
Okoye 22
Diogu 11
Uzoh 9

CAF has young agile ballers.
Nigeria has experience
Pretty balanced

Nigeria is slowly edging away
Slam dunk by Lawal

omonnakoda: Always a shame when people in leadership and sensitive positions talk recklessly.
Many of us in the South remain suspicious of the census figures but there is a sensible way and a foolish way to do thins.Odimegi has chosen the foolish way

Who is Odimegi?
So your brain cannot process simple alphabets just there starring at you.