Lifeboat Foundation

2007-10-14T21:32:16Z

75.62.111.57:

[[Image:Lifeboatfoundation.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The Lifeboat Foundation advocates the creation of space colonies to serve as 'backup drives' for the human race.]]

'''The Lifeboat Foundation''' is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping humanity survive [[existential risk]]s and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including [[genetic engineering]], [[nanotechnology]], and [[AI|robotics/AI]], in the event of a [[technological singularity]].

The Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining [[space colonies]] in case the other defensive strategies fail.

The Lifeboat Foundation was formed with the ethical premise that decreasing the likelihood of human extinction is the activity with the most positive [[utility]] on the planet today. In recent years, several prominent public figures have stepped forward strongly in favor of mitigating extinction risks. Oxford philosopher [[Nick Bostrom]] writes, “For standard utilitarians, priority number one, two, three and four should consequently be to reduce [[existential risk]]. The utilitarian imperative “Maximize expected aggregate utility!” can be simplified to the maxim “Minimize existential risk!”. <ref>Nick Bostrom, "[http://www.nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste.html Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development]", Preprint, ''Utilitas'' Vol. '''15''', No. 3, pp. 308-314</ref>

==Administration and advisory board==

The President and Founder of the Lifeboat Foundation is [[Eric Klien]], its International Spokesperson is [[Philippe van Nedervelde]], its Fundraising Director, North America is [[Michael Anissimov]], and its Director of Long-term Strategy is Michael Vassar. The Lifeboat Foundation is [[tax exemption|tax exempt]] under [[501(c)(3)|Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code]].

The organization also has a very large Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), composed of 370 members as of August 2007. This includes philosophers, economists, biologists, nanotechnologists, AI researchers, educators, policy experts, engineers, lawyers, ethicists, futurists, neuroscientists, physicists, and space experts. The SAB includes [[Ray Kurzweil]] and [[Nobel Prize]] winners [[Clive Granger]] and [[Wole Soyinka]].

==Lifeboat Foundation Programs==

The Lifeboat Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board is working on a number of programs to assess risks, negate them ("shields"), and survive catastrophic events ("preservers"):

*[http://lifeboat.com/ex/asteroid.shield AsteroidShield]
*[http://lifeboat.com/ex/bio.shield BioShield]
*[http://lifeboat.com/ex/nano.shield NanoShield]
*[http://lifeboat.com/ex/security.preserver Security Preserver]
*[http://lifeboat.com/ex/space.habitats Space Habitats]

Many future programs are in the works, including programs to prevent risks from AI, particle accelerator mishaps, and to maintain communications networks in case of disaster.

==See also==

Related topics:
*[[existential risk]]
*[[molecular nanotechnology]]
*[[utility fog]]
*[[seed AI]]
*[[space colonization]]
*[[space and survival]]
*[[biosecurity]]
*[[technological singularity]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==

*[http://lifeboat.com/ex/main Lifeboat Foundation]
*[http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios] by Nick Bostrom
*[http://www.nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste.html Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development] by Nick Bostrom
*[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AtjblpXOSMXPaKrJ2N9lui8jzKIX?qid=20060704195516AAnrdOD How can the human race survive the next hundred years?] - question on Yahoo Answers by Stephen Hawking
*[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html Why the future doesn't need us] by Bill Joy
*[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E6D9163FF93BA25756C0A9659C8B63 It Was Fun While It Lasted] by Martin Rees
*[http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader$1439 Biowar for Dummies] by Paul Boutin
*[http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?cat=21&paged=2 Accelerating Future] - regularly updated blog that discusses existential risks
*[http://www.oceania.org/] - the Atlantis Project. The earlier efforts of Eric Klien

[[Category:Risk]]
[[Category:Space colonization]]

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Lifeboat Foundation