Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction I BACKGROUND Long-term astrophysical processes Evolution theory and the future of humanity Millenial tendencies in responses to apocalyptic threats Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgement of global risks Observation selection effects and global catastrophic risks Systems-based risk analysis Catastrophes and insurance Public policy towards catastrophe II RISKS FROM NATURE Super-volcanism and other geophysical processes of catastrophic import Hazards from comets and asteroids Influence of Supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and cosmic rays on the terrestrial environment III RISKS FROM UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES Climate change and global risk Plagues and pandemics: past, present, and future Artificial Intelligence as a positive and negative factor in global risk Big troubles, imagined and real IV RISKS FROM HOSTILE ACTS Catastrophe, social collapse, and and human extinction The continuing threat of nuclear war Catastrophic nuclear terrorism: a preventable peril Biotechnology and biosecurity Nanotechnology as global catastrophic risk The totalitarian threat Author's biographies Index

Global Catastrophic Risks

https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/bitstream/10356/82850/1/Entrepreneurship%20and%20well-being%20Past%2c%20present%2c%20and%20future.pdf

Entrepreneurship and well-being : past, present, and future

Industry 4.0 symbolizes the fourth industrial revolution and the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. The purpose of this article is to examine the research ...

Critical factors for the successful implementation of Industry 4.0: a review and future research direction

Making material things remains central to human economies and subsistence, and to how earthly resources are transformed. Yet experiences and knowledges of those who make things – especially in the heart of the industrial complex – are notably absent in existing debates on shifting to a less resource-intensive future. We review research on materials and their making, presenting three research trajectories: making beyond binaries of craft and manufacturing; the social life of making; and acknowledging industrial cultures, workers and capacities amidst climate change. Success in transforming economy and society in anticipation of volatile futures depends on material acknowledgements and accomplishments.

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Geographies of making Rethinking materials and skills for volatile futures

How far do recent innovations in robotics and artificial intelligence herald an unprecedented economic and social transformation? This article provides a critical evaluation of this question, chall...

Technology, innovation, employment and power: Does robotics and artificial intelligence really mean social transformation?:

Contemporary society is increasingly confronted with the socio‐economic problems generated by what has been described as the end of industrial society and its transition to a post‐industrial society. The most immediate symptom of this transition process is the high rate of unemployment being experienced by all the advanced industrialised nations. The aggregate percentage of the labour force unemployed in April 1978 in Canada was 8.6; in Italy 6.8; in Belgium 10.4; in Great Britain 5.8; in West Germany 4.4; and in the United States 6.0.

What Future for Employment

There is no doubt that the application of microelectronic devices in processes and products can result in significant increases in labour productivity. There is considerably less agreement, however, on the implications of this for future employment prospects. The predictions which have been made concerning the impact of the microprocessor and its related technology on the economy and employment cover the entire range, from economic expansion and job creation at one extreme, to recession and large‐scale persistent unemployment at the other. A large number of these forecasts, however, are based on a limited analysis of the technological, economic, demographic and social factors involved and exhibit a general lack of awareness of certain basic historical trends in the labour market.

Technology and Employment: The Prospects to 1990

The office is an area of activity which to date has been largely untouched by major technological change. With the exception of the electric typewriter and the development of photocopying machines, office equipment has changed comparatively little during this century. As a result, while there have undoubtedly been advances made in office organisation and procedures, the basic systems have remained essentially manual and mechanical. The situation is reflected in the relative capitalisation of shop floor operatives and office workers. A recent study conducted by the Stanford Research Institute, for example, estimated that the average investment in capital equipment for an office worker was about $2,000, compared with an average of $25,000 on the shop floor. The labour intensity of office systems is similarly evident in their cost structure, with approximately 80 per cent of office costs being directly attributable to labour.

Peter Thornton

Papers

What Future for Employment

Technology and Employment: The Prospects to 1990

Electronic Information Technology: Managing Change in the Office