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Nick Bostrom

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Also known as Nick Boström

philosopher and writer (born 1973)

In the Vinony graph

Vinony's link graph records 360 inbound references to Nick Bostrom, and connects out to Doctor of Philosophy, technological singularity and anthropic principle.

It sits within the topics 1973 births, 21st-century Swedish philosophers and Alumni of King's College London.

Vinony links it to 36 Wikipedia language editions.

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Country
GB
Active from
1973-03-10

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
449
Total plays
968

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nick+Bostrom">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Nick Bostrom

Quotes

  • [If] our actions have even the slightest effect on the probability of eventual colonization, this will outweigh their effect on when colonization takes place. For standard utilitarians, priority number one, two, three and four should consequently be to reduce existential risk. The utilitarian imperative “Maximize expected aggregate utility!” can be simplified to the maxim “Minimize existential risk!”
  • Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder.
  • By anybody’s standards, there is a huge amount of unnecessary and undeserved suffering that is just bad and that we should get rid of.
  • The Internet is a big boon to academic research. Gone are the days spent in dusty library stacks digging for journal articles. Many articles are available free to the public in open-access journal or as preprints on the authors’ website.
  • The universe is cold. Fun is the fire that melts the blocks of hardship and creates a bubbling celebration of life. It is the birth right of every creature, a right no less sacred for having been trampled on since the beginning of time.
  • What could be more fascinating than discovering life that had evolved entirely independently of life here on Earth? Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we are not entirely alone in this vast cold cosmos. But I hope that our Mars probes will discover nothing. It would be good news if we find Mars to be completely sterile. Dead rocks and lifeless sands would lift my spirit.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Niklas Boström , ( 1973-03-10 ) 10 March 1973 (age 53) , Helsingborg , Sweden
Spouse
Susan
Education
University of Gothenburg ( BA ) Stockholm University ( MA ) King's College London ( MSc ) London School of Economics ( PhD )
Thesis
Observational Selection Effects and Probability (2000)
Doctoral advisor
Colin Howson , Craig Callender
Era
Contemporary philosophy
Region
Western philosophy
School
Analytic philosophy
Institutions
Yale University , University of Oxford , Future of Humanity Institute
Main interests
Philosophy of artificial intelligence , Bioethics
Notable ideas
Anthropic bias , Reversal test , Simulation hypothesis , Vulnerable world hypothesis , Existential risk studies , Singleton , Ancestor simulation , Information hazard , Infinitarian paralysis , Self-indication assumption , Self-sampling assumption
Website
nickbostrom .com

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official website
www.nickbostrom.com
Image
Prof Nick Bostrom 324-1.jpg
Show 3 more facts
Commons category
Nick Bostrom
date of birth
1973-03-10
birth name
Niklas Boström
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~21 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Nick Bostrom (/ˈbɒstrəm/ BOST-rəm; Swedish: Niklas Boström [ˈnɪ̌kːlas ˈbûːstrœm]; born 10 March 1973) is a philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. He was the founding director of the later defunct Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford and has become Principal Researcher at the Macrostrategy Research Initiative.

Bostrom is the author of Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002), Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) and Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (2024).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Nick Bostrom” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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