Invitation to Apply: RESILIENCER Workshop on SRM and Global Catastrophic Risk
Gideon Futerman
I am writing to invite you to apply to the RESILIENCER Workshop on the 12th September at Utrecht University. The RESILIENCER (Ramifications of Experimentation into SRM In Light of its Impacts on Existential, Negative-state and Civilisational Endangering Risks) workshop will provide a forum for a wide range of SRM scholars to explore the impacts of SRM research and deployment on global catastrophic risks.
The workshop will attempt to explore a whole host of questions about how SRM research and/or deployment could act to increase and decrease certain extreme risks, particularly focused on heavy tailed risks which are commonly neglected in the discussion. The aim will to be to provide an environment for scholars who are both in favour and sceptical of research and/or deployment to engage in knowledge generation, generating key questions for enquiry and and attempting to challenge points of preexisting wisdom. We hope to create an environment where researchers are encouraged to provide unique perspectives, including blue teaming viewpoints opposed to their own. There will also be the generation and evaluation of scenarios, and evaluation of the applicability of certain positions on SRM in different scenarios.
The RESILIENCER Workshop has been established as part of the RESILIENCER Project, so an opportunity to critique aspects of the research already done in that project will also be discussed. This project has been funded by FTX Future Fund, although they have no sway over the methods or the results of the project nor workshop.
The questions of the relation of SRM to GCRs has been heavily neglected in the literature thus far, and so this workshop hopes to engage researchers from across the field to get as wide a range of views as possible. Having such a wide range is particularly important, as it helps to buttress against the dangers of locking in or unfairly privileging certain assumptions, viewpoints and modes of enquiry. We really hope that as many people as possible can attend with as many viewpoints as possible.
The workshop will hope to generate useful output which can be used in workshop proceedings and the resulting RESILIENCER Project. There will be opportunities for collaborative discussion and working across groups with various expertise and ideas, as well as a hope for identification of key points of disagreement as well. We are still in the process of formulating the agenda, although the preliminary agenda will be sent out shortly. The workshop will mainly be discussion based rather than presentation based.
The workshop will be taking place on the 12th September 2022 at Utrecht University. Unfortunately, we will have to be selective about which people we allow to come to the workshop, as the space in the venue is limited, and we will tell you if you have got into the workshop or not. We are looking for a balance of expertises, viewpoints and backgrounds, so not getting a place isn’t because you “weren’t good enough”. Even if you don’t get a place, we would love your input either way.