3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The prospect of rapid technological development, coupled with the fragility of existing political institutions, has led many futurists to argue that humanity’s chances of surviving the 21st century are no better than a coin flip. This course will introduce students to the nascent, interdisciplinary field of Existential Risk Studies while situating the conversation of ‘the politics of the apocalypse’ within a wider geophysical, sociological, and geopolitical perspective. Topics to be considered include nuclear technology, climate change and biospheric collapse, geoengineering, artificial superintelligence, transhumanism, and space expansionism as potential causes of political and existential crises.