4. Our final century?

Humanity appears to face existential risks: a chance that we’ll destroy our long-term potential. We’ll examine why existential risks might be a moral priority, and explore why they are so neglected by society. We’ll also look into one of the major risks that we might face: a human-made pandemic, worse than COVID-19.

Alongside this, we’ll introduce you to the concept of “expected value” and explore whether you could lose all of your impact by missing one crucial consideration.

1. Introduction

Our fi­nal cen­tury?

2. Existential risks

Reach Chapter 2 of The Precipice (35 mins.)

From “The case for reducing existential risks,” read up to “What’s the total risk of human extinction if we add everything together?” (10 mins.)

The Precipice (To read: Chap­ter 2)

The case for re­duc­ing ex­is­ten­tial risk

3. Risks from pandemics

Why ex­perts are ter­rified of a hu­man-made pan­demic — and what we can do to stop it

4. Strategies for improving biosecurity

Con­crete Biose­cu­rity Pro­jects (some of which could be big)

5. Expected value & Hits-based giving

Ex­pected Value

Donat­ing like a startup in­vestor: Hits-based giv­ing, explained

7. Exercise (10 mins.)

[Question] Ex­er­cise for ‘Our Fi­nal Cen­tury?’

7. Crucial considerations

Cru­cial consideration

8. More to explore

More to ex­plore on ‘Our Fi­nal Cen­tury’