Official Course Description:

What do the next 10, 100, and 1,000 years hold for humanity? We may be entering a unique period in human history where our technological capacity for improving human wellbeing is only matched by the risk those same technologies pose to our very existence as a species. While climate change is our greatest near-term challenge, artificial intelligence, geo-engineering, genetic and bioengineering, automation and a host of other promethean technologies offer great promise and genuine peril. This course will not only discuss emerging technologies, but also how to think systematically about them: exploring topics including prediction, statistical inference about uncertain future outcomes, and how to ethically weigh the interests of the living against the interests of future generations

Student Course Description:

This class is a discussion based class where we ponder the future potential of humanity and the future challenges humanity may face. We look at historical events such as the creation of the atomic bomb to understand how only in recent years humanity has created technology that is capable of destroying ourselves and all other life on this planet. We look at adaptation and mitigation strategies that the current population must take into consideration to safeguard the potential of future humans and all of humanity. We are required to participate twice every class and give our opinions on different kinds of ethical and probability based surveys which sparks interesting class discussions. The multitude of different perspectives and different backgrounds of people in the class make you consider things in ways you never would have before. It sometimes feels like a debate class where you have to defend your opinion and explain what evidence led you to that opinion.