Real-world XK-class scenarios
Hey, so lots of my followers are in the SCP fandom and are aware of the site’s concept of XK-class scenarios and general bent towards apocalypses. This can also happen in the real world, and it’s something we should be very concerned about. You guys have been interested in some of the other overlaps I’ve seen between wiki stuff and the real world, so here’s a list of resources about real-life catastrophic risks.
The Wikipedia page for global catastrophic risks - Includes Nick Bostrom’s distinction - a global catastrophic risk is a scenario in which a large percent of the population is killed. An existential risk is one in which humans go completely extinct. Obviously, there’s overlap in the scenarios that might cause either.
Future of Life Institute - Information on a variety of existential or catastrophic scenarios.
Future of Humanity Institute - Mostly artificial intelligence-focused.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute. - Also AI-focused. This paper, Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk, is really good and outlines the severity of the danger of AI. (Link leads to PDF.)
Don’t bank on the bomb - is your bank or other place that invests money, investing money in companies that make pieces for nuclear weapons? Check here.
Virtual Biosecurity Center - From the Federation of American Scientists. Lots of online biosecurity resources.
Wikipedia page for runaway climate change scenarios
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists - various global risk news and information about the Doomsday Clock, which currently sits at 3 minutes to midnight. Did you know that it would take 0.03% of the world’s current nuclear arsenal going off to cause climate change on a scale unprecedented in human history?