Existential Threats 101 | New Space Economy

Infographic explaining the immediate effects of nuclear conflict, how fires and soot could lead to cooling and food insecurity, longer-term effects on social and economic systems, and measures intended to reduce risk.

NUCLEAR WAR AND NUCLEAR WINTER

Infographic comparing four levels of harmful events, from ordinary disasters to existential threats, with definitions, assessment criteria, examples, and a concluding explanation of long-term risk.

WHAT COUNTS AS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT?

Infographic explaining how increasingly capable AI systems could cause unintended harm when their goals diverge from human intentions, with sections on alignment, autonomy, pathways to loss of control, governance, and safety measures.

ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND LOSS OF HUMAN CONTROL

Infographic describes nine interconnected food-system pillars, disruption pathways, cascading effects that increase famine risk, and resilience measures involving ecosystems, water, inputs, energy, logistics, trade, storage, communities, and governance.

GLOBAL FOOD-SYSTEM COLLAPSE

Educational infographic summarizing how near-Earth asteroids and comets can cause effects from local damage to global climate and biodiversity changes, along with detection, deflection, and preparedness measures.

ASTEROID AND COMET IMPACTS

Infographic summarizing biotechnology benefits, pathways to biological harm, differences between engineered and natural outbreaks, response challenges, preparedness measures, and governance safeguards.

ENGINEERED PANDEMICS AND BIOLOGICAL CATASTROPHES

Infographic explaining how warming affects six natural-system areas and can cascade into water, food, migration, conflict, ecosystem, governance, economic, and public-health risks.

CLIMATE CHANGE, TIPPING POINTS, AND SYSTEMIC GLOBAL FAILURE

Educational infographic describing the stages of a supervolcanic eruption, the atmospheric effects of ash and aerosols, local and global consequences, and six resilience measures: monitoring, early warning, community preparation, food-system strengthening, resilient infrastructure, and recovery support.

SUPERVOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND GLOBAL VOLCANIC WINTER

Infographic summarizing why difficult-to-anticipate risks matter, listing sources of surprise, showing a progression from unimagined risks to addressed risks, and recommending institutional resilience practices.

UNKNOWN RISKS: WHAT HAS HUMANITY NOT ANTICIPATED?

Infographic explains how disruptions can cascade across interconnected electricity, communications, satellite, internet, finance, transport, water, healthcare, and semiconductor systems, and lists measures for reducing systemic outages.

CASCADE FAILURE OF GLOBAL TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION