scholarly journals Does the Sustainability of the Anthropocene Technosphere Imply an Existential Risk for Our Species? Thinking with Peter Haff

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 314
Author(s):  
João Ribeiro Mendes
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Catastrophic Risk ◽  
Existential Risk

Throughout the 20th century, several thinkers noticed that Technology was becoming a global phenomenon. More recently, US geologist Peter Haff claimed that a Technosphere is now in place and can be conceived as a new Earth geological system. This unprecedented situation is creating enormous challenges not only for our species, since more and more of its members are now dependent on the subsistence of this man-made sphere, but also for other species and natural ecosystems that have become increasingly dependent on it. Perhaps the most crucial of these challenges is the sustainability of the Technosphere itself. In the first part of the article, I attempted a critical reconstruction of Haff’s Technosphere concept. The second part is dedicated to analyzing how the unsustainability of the Technosphere represents a global catastrophic risk and ultimately an existential risk.

scholarly journals Dominating North American Forest Pathology Issues of the 20th Century

2003 ◽  
Vol 93 (8) ◽  
pp. 1039-1040 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Dutch Elm Disease ◽  
Tree Seedlings ◽  
Forest Pathology ◽  
White Pine Blister Rust ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Large Numbers

The profession of forest pathology evolved in the early decades of the 20th century from a science describing microorganisms that infect trees to a discipline that was required to deal with numerous disease outbreaks. The foundations of the science were carried from Europe to the “New World” and initially dealt with decay and the resource losses it caused. The profession was forced to shift direction quickly because it was called upon to address major diseases caused by the introduction of pathogens from other continents; notably organisms inciting chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, and white pine blister rust. Changes in natural ecosystems that resulted from a legacy of poor forest practice, land abuse, and an increase in plantation monocultures gave rise to other disease problems when host-pathogen balances in natural ecosystems were disturbed. Further, the need for large numbers of tree seedlings resulted in numerous nursery disease problems. Although many of the principles of general plant pathology had application to the study of forest diseases, the long-term nature of forests requires varied approaches to their study and management. Today, the science continues to evolve as the complexities of forest ecosystems unfold.

scholarly journals Accumulating evidence using crowdsourcing and machine learning: A living bibliography about existential risk and global catastrophic risk

Futures ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 102508
Author(s):  
Gorm E. Shackelford ◽  
Luke Kemp ◽  
Catherine Rhodes ◽  
Lalitha Sundaram ◽  
Seán S. ÓhÉigeartaigh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Catastrophic Risk ◽  
Existential Risk

scholarly journals Nuclear War as a Global Catastrophic Risk

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Scouras
Keyword(s):  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Catastrophic Risk ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Existential Risk ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Nuclear Winter ◽  
Complete Collapse

AbstractNuclear war is clearly a global catastrophic risk, but it is not an existential risk as is sometimes carelessly claimed. Unfortunately, the consequence and likelihood components of the risk of nuclear war are both highly uncertain. In particular, for nuclear wars that include targeting of multiple cities, nuclear winter may result in more fatalities across the globe than the better-understood effects of blast, prompt radiation, and fallout. Electromagnetic pulse effects, which could range from minor electrical disturbances to the complete collapse of the electric grid, are similarly highly uncertain. Nuclear war likelihood assessments are largely based on intuition, and they span the spectrum from zero to certainty. Notwithstanding these profound uncertainties, we must manage the risk of nuclear war with the knowledge we have. Benefit-cost analysis and other structured analytic methods applied to evaluate risk mitigation measures must acknowledge that we often do not even know whether many proposed approaches (e.g., reducing nuclear arsenals) will have a net positive or negative effect. Multidisciplinary studies are needed to better understand the consequences and likelihood of nuclear war and the complex relationship between these two components of risk, and to predict both the direction and magnitude of risk mitigation approaches.

Development of Reading Remediation for Dyslexic Individuals

2016 ◽  
Vol 224 (4) ◽  
pp. 240-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mélanie Bédard ◽  
Line Laplante ◽  
Julien Mercier
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Educational Neuroscience ◽  
Reading Remediation ◽  
Functional Brain ◽  
Neurophysiological Data ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Brain

Abstract. Dyslexia is a phenomenon for which the brain correlates have been studied since the beginning of the 20th century. Simultaneously, the field of education has also been studying dyslexia and its remediation, mainly through behavioral data. The last two decades have seen a growing interest in integrating neuroscience and education. This article provides a quick overview of pertinent scientific literature involving neurophysiological data on functional brain differences in dyslexia and discusses their very limited influence on the development of reading remediation for dyslexic individuals. Nevertheless, it appears that if certain conditions are met – related to the key elements of educational neuroscience and to the nature of the research questions – conceivable benefits can be expected from the integration of neurophysiological data with educational research. When neurophysiological data can be employed to overcome the limits of using behavioral data alone, researchers can both unravel phenomenon otherwise impossible to document and raise new questions.

Updating Our Knowledge of Reasoning in the 20th Century

1994 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 764-765
Author(s):  
William E. Deuser ◽  
Craig A. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century
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