Students in a course at the University of Chicago sorted through the future that they will inherit. Illustration by Ben Denzer

Gags and wonders abound. But now, enough diversionary fun, back to the tough stuff. Thanks to Rivka Galchen, writing in the current issue of The New Yorker, follow along and ponder all the major threats, with rigorous reasoning, in the classroom:

Are We Doomed? Here’s How to Think About It

Climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear annihilation, biological warfare—the field of existential risk is a way to reason through the dizzying, terrifying headlines.

In January, the computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton gave a lecture to Are We Doomed?, a course at the University of Chicago. He spoke via Zoom about whether artificial intelligence poses an existential threat. He was cheerful and expansive and apparently certain that everything was going to go terribly wrong, and soon. “I timed my life perfectly,” Hinton, who is seventy-six, told the class. “I was born just after the end of the Second World War. I was a teen-ager before there was aids. And now I’m going to die before the end.” Continue reading →