Module 2
Welcome to Module 2
Welcome to Module 2: Assessing Existential Risks
Module Overview
Module 2: Assessment of Existential Risks covers the foundational theories, ethical frameworks, and structural challenges involved in managing global threats, including:
- Lesson 3: Foundations of Existential Risk: Explores the definition of existential risk and historical perspectives.
- Lesson 4: Ethics, Cultures, and Perspectives: Introduces the moral frameworks used to weigh the value of future generations.
- Lesson 5: What Makes Existential Risk Hard?: Delves into game theory, externalities, and the challenges of global coordination.
What You'll Engage With
In this module, you will:
- Learn what makes a risk existential and why these risks are ethically unique.
- Explore core ethical frameworks, utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics, and how they apply to humanity’s long-term survival.
- Reflect on ethical obligations to future generations.
- Analyze why managing these risks is difficult due to uncertainty, free-riding, and strategic failures.