Re: "Coping with Future Catastrophes"

Hi Jeffrey,
I'll send you an update on my AGI project (which is going reasonably well) sometime soon, but what occasioned this email was reading the press release for your upcoming meeting on global risks in Dubai: http://www.pr.com/press-release/403599
This topic interests me a lot as you probably know ... attached find an almost-final version of a paper on how to mitigate the potential risks of advanced AGI systems, which is going to be published shortly in the Journal of Evolution and Technology.
So if you see fit, it would be great for you to reserve a slot for me at the Dubai meeting. ;-)
Also, I have some other suggestions for you...
You might want to consider inviting Steve Omohundro, who has written some pretty insightful stuff about the potential existential risks posed by AGI.... His paper on Basic AI Drives is a good one http://selfawaresystems.com/2007/11/30/paper-on-the-basic-ai-drives/ and I suspect it will appeal to you. Steve and I gave talks together with Larry Krauss (whom it seems you know) at the Singularity Summit Australia last year...
There're also the Singularity Institute for AI guys, who are obsessed with the topic of AGI and existential risk. Some of the SIAI guys are too kooky for my taste; but Luke Muelhauser, their director, is reasonably solid.. http://singinst.org/aboutus/team
Another very obvious suggestion is Nick Bostrom, who coined the term "existential risks", and heads the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford. We're actually having our AGI 2012 conference at Oxford, and alongside the technical AGI presentations we'll have some discussions with Nick and his Oxford philosophy team on AGI-related "future catastrophe" stuff.
Finally Paul Werbos http://www.werbos.com/ is a brilliant cross-disciplinary scientist who knows a hell of a lot about the risks facing humanity on all levels, due to his position with the NSF. He's a rare case of a guy who's a broad-minded, wildly imaginative thinker and ALSO very tight w/ US government science, engineering, military, intelligence, etc.
These folks all represent a community that has thought about, and discussed, the "future catastrophes" issue quite a lot, and probably would have a lot to add to your Future Catastrophes conference.
And as I said, more on the AGI work a little later ;)
thanks much
Ben

Ben Goertzel, PhD
http://goertzel.org
"My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Hah ... cool, thanks for the quick reply ;)
BTW, I'm spending most of my time in Hong Kong now, where my little AGI team is located. But I'll be back in the US for the end of May and all of June, so if you have time maybe we can briefly get together then so I can update you on progress toward AGI. Anyway I'll ping you closer to that time to see if you may be available...
ben

Great

Sorry for all the typos .Sent from my iPhone