Report from the launch workshop of the Mimir Center (11-12 December 2023)

On 11-12 December we hosted an academic workshop to launch Mimir’s research program. The one-and-a-half-day event featured research presentations from invited speakers and Mimir members, as well as a presentation of the Mimir research program and a brainstorming session on how we should develop the Center.

Our invited speakers were Lara Mani (Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge), David Thorstad (Vanderbilt University), Fei Song (Hong Kong Catastrophic Risk Center, Lingnan University), Jeff Sebo (Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program, New  York University) and Daniel Steel (University of British Columbia). The full program is available here.

From Mimir, we had research presentations from Tim Campbell, Emma Engström, and Karim Jebari.

We are very grateful to everyone who participated. The brainstorming session was particularly inspiring for us as we plan how to make our Center impactful and long-lasting. We also made new connections which we hope to develop into future collaborations.

Gustaf Arrhenius, director of the Institute for Futures Studies and member of the Mimir Center, opens the workshop by wishing everybody welcome and introducing Karim Jebari.

The workshop was held at the Institute for Futures Studies

First presentation of the day: Karim Jebari introduces the Mimir Center

Lara Mani from CSER and Cambridge talked about communicating catastrophic risks

Professor Bo Rothstein weighs in on the discussion about hope- or fear-driven catastrophic risk communication

Tim Campbell held a presentation about whole brain emulation and population ethics

David Thorstad from Vanderbilt gave a presentation titled “Mistakes in the moral mathematics of existential risk”

Andrea Asker, Emma Engström and Anders Sandberg

Fei Song from HKCRC and Lingnan offered a new form of consequentialism as a response to James Lenman’s Cluelessness Argument.

Remote presentation about the concept of collapse by Dan Steel from UBC

Jeff Sebo and Julia Mosquera

Emma Engström, Constantin Arnscheidt, Einar Persson, Fei Song and David Thorstad

Day 2 started with a presentation by Jeff Sebo from NYU about insects, AI and ethics.

Karim Jebari presents a work-in-progress with Julia Mosquera

Emma Engström gave the presentation “The prospect for data-driven assessments of slow global catastrophic risks”

Workshop organizer Joe Roussos concluded the workshop by holding a brainstorm session about future research

David Thorstad, Anders Sandberg and Lara Mani

Andrea Asker

Belinda Cleeland