Global catastrophic risks

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 -- Supervolcanism 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 Yudkowski -- 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 and -- Biotechnology and biosecurity / Ali Nouri and Christopher F. Chyba -- Nanotechnology as global catastrophic risk / Chris Phoenix and Mike Treder -- The totalitarian threat / Bryan Caplan.