Friday, June 14, 2024

Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute Has Shut Down

Well. I guess that's that. It's over. Fin. I wonder if they saw it coming?

From the FHI homepage:

Future of Humanity Institute

The Future of Humanity Institute closed on 16 April 2024. Research in the fields where FHI was active may continue to be pursued elsewhere within the University and in many external organizations that have sprung up since FHI’s founding.

We used to visit to see what the Institute's founder, Nick Bostrom had to say about existential risk:

So, What Are They Thinking About At Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute? 

Risk/Prop Bets: How unlikely is a doomsday catastrophe? 

...If interested we mentioned Bostrom in last week's "The Roubini Cascade: Are we heading for a Greater Depression?". His Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford seems to have moved on from the mundane climate cataclysm or cosmic fireball ending everything, to a very real, very serious examination of whether or not Artificial Intelligence may be the nail in humanity's coffin, so to speak.... 

Puny Human, I Scoff At Your AI, Soon You Will Know The Power Of Artificial 'Super' Intelligence. Tremble and Weep
[insert 'Bwa Ha Ha' here, if desired] 

 "The future has become a financial fetish, sliced into probable outcomes to be calculated and bet upon"
You say that like its a bad thing.