University of Oxford - Beyond the gloom and doom

Will the human species survive the 21st century? This was the question addressed at a conference last week, "Global Catastrophic Risks", at the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, which is part of the philosophy faculty. Nick Bostrom, the institute's director, said: "With global catastrophic risks, the choice is not whether to ignore them or to indulge in gloomy despondency: the challenge is to seek understanding and take the most cost-effective steps to make the world safer."