Book contents
- Planet in Peril
- Reviews
- Planet in Peril
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Fictional Vignettes
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind
- Part II Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What’s Preventing Them from Being Realized
- 6 How to Beat Climate Change
- 7 Wise Governance for Nukes and Pandemics: Where to Go Faster and Where to Slow Down
- 8 Controlling Things Versus Controlling Agents: The Challenge of High-Level AI
- 9 The International Dimension: Where Every Solution Stumbles
- Prologue to Parts III, IV, and V
- Part III Sensible Steps for Today’s World: Powerful Measures We Can Implement Right Away
- Part IV The Middle-Term Goal: New International Tools for the Late Twenty-First Century
- Part V The Long-Term Goal: Envisioning a Mature System of Global Governance for the Twenty-Second Century
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Wise Governance for Nukes and Pandemics: Where to Go Faster and Where to Slow Down
from Part II - Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What’s Preventing Them from Being Realized
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2022
- Planet in Peril
- Reviews
- Planet in Peril
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Fictional Vignettes
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind
- Part II Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What’s Preventing Them from Being Realized
- 6 How to Beat Climate Change
- 7 Wise Governance for Nukes and Pandemics: Where to Go Faster and Where to Slow Down
- 8 Controlling Things Versus Controlling Agents: The Challenge of High-Level AI
- 9 The International Dimension: Where Every Solution Stumbles
- Prologue to Parts III, IV, and V
- Part III Sensible Steps for Today’s World: Powerful Measures We Can Implement Right Away
- Part IV The Middle-Term Goal: New International Tools for the Late Twenty-First Century
- Part V The Long-Term Goal: Envisioning a Mature System of Global Governance for the Twenty-Second Century
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Wise governance for nuclear weaponry and synthetic biology requires humankind to move more swiftly than today in certain technological domains, while actively slowing down the pace in other areas. For example, advancing technologies for aerial and space-based surveillance, coupled with AI for interpreting the resulting high-resolution images, could allow nations to track in real time the location of other nations’ nuclear missile submarines. Such a development would remove one of the fundamental stabilizing factors in today’s military affairs: the guarantee of a second-strike capability, which lies at the heart of nuclear deterrence. These kinds of technological breakthroughs urgently need to be restrained via diplomatic agreements akin to the superpowers’ arms control treaties during the Cold War. Similarly, the existing “Wild West” in synthetic biology and AI requires swift governmental action to create effective regulatory frameworks for these fields, both within nations and among nations.
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- Planet in PerilHumanity's Four Greatest Challenges and How We Can Overcome Them, pp. 98 - 105Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022