Humans are No More Immortal than Dinosaurs

Bloomberg Businessweek gives an excellent summary of SHfHS and the issues we're concerned with here:

Guardians of the Apocalypse

Threats to humanity abound. Natural disasters have threatened all species on Earth before, and already caused planet-wide extinction events. Never-before-seen threats arise from modern and future technology. There are enough dangers to humanity's continued existence that everyone should be concerned. These possibilities are called Existential Risks, or X-Risk.

Fortunately for all of us, there are good people trying to stop them. The vanguard astronomers of Spacewatch keep an ever-watchful eye on the heavens to save us from the fate of the dinosaurs. Geologists examine potentially dangerous supervolcanoes to save us from becoming a planet-wide Pompeii. The natural X-Risks are pretty well taken care of: we can rest easy knowing the Universe isn't likely to wipe us out soon. Unfortunately, the threat we pose to ourselves is far more difficult to constrain.

Saving Humanity from Homo Sapiens (SHfHS) is dedicated to preventing threats to humankind brought about by humans.

The greatest threats to humanity lie in technologies humans have invented. From the danger of nuclear war or catastrophic global warming to the looming threat of future technologies such as self-replicating nanobots and powerful artificial intelligence, SHfHS is dedicated to finding ways to ensure that humanity continues to progress without snuffing ourselves out along the way.

There are people trying to do the good work of saving humanity from potentially destroying itself, but they need our help. That's what Saving Humanity from Homo Sapiens is all about: finding the people doing the best work to prevent human-created X-Risk and supporting them. You can help.

Center For Aplied Rationality
Future of Humanity Institute
Machine Intelligence Research Institute