Educational Approaches to Existential Risk Mitigation: Capabilities and Curriculum

Existential Risks
Existential risks are profoundly serious, with an estimated 15-20% (Ord, 2020) to 50% (Rees, 2014) chance of causing human extinction this century. They are also diverse, including climate change and environmental degradation, as well as novel technologies like AI, nanotechnology, and biotechnology, which, whilst socially transformative, pose risks of severe destruction (Beard et al., 2023, p.xi). Despite the difficulty in gauging their exact severity, their potentially catastrophic consequences require urgent action. However, current efforts are insufficient, with more than ten times greater spending on ice cream than on risk prevention (Ord, 2020, p.313) and substantially more research on dung beetles and Star Trek than onunderstanding and mitigating these threats (Bostrom, 2013, p.26). Existential risks (X-risks) and their neglect stem from individual cognitive biases and structural issues. Biases like scope neglect (Yudkowsky, 2020, pp.105-107), where people struggle to respond appropriately to large-scale problems, and confirmation bias (pp.98-101), the tendency to seek information that confirms existing beliefs, are rooted in the philosophies of Western modernity. Additionally, critical perspectives identify how X-risks arise more from the pursuit of profit and power of entities such as the U.S. military-industrial complex, fossil fuel corporations, and major tech companies (Kemp, 2021). In sum, existential risks challenge us to confront not only our survival but also the prevailing structures of bmorality and power within society; necessitating a paradigm shift in both scholarly attention and policymaking.

Education
This proposal holds that education is key to driving this societal change. Schools, as intermediaries between individuals and society (Lawson et al., 2019, p.461), can significantly aid in raising individual and collective awareness and engagement around X-risks (Dietz et al., 2020, pp.137, 139). Yet, current educational...