Long-term trajectories of human civilization

Long-Term Trajectories of Human Civilization
Published in Foresight 21(1):53-83 (2019), DOI 10.1108/FS-04-2018-0037 .
This version 11 March 2019.
Seth D. Baum,1 Stuart Armstrong,2 Timoteus Ekenstedt,3 Olle Häggström,4 Robin
Hanson,5 Karin Kuhlemann,6 Matthijs M. Maas,7 James D. Miller,8 Markus Salmela,9
Anders Sandberg,2 Kaj Sotala,10 Phil Torres,11 Alexey Turchin,12 and Roman V.
Yampolskiy13
1.Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, USA. Corresponding author: seth@gcrinstitute.org
2.Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, UK
3.Umeå University, Sweden
4.Department of Mathematical Statistics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
5.Department of Economics, George Mason University, USA
6.Department of Political Science, University College London, UK
7.Centre for International Law, Conflict and Crisis, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
8.Department of Economics, Smith College, USA
9.Independent researcher, Sweden
10.Foundational Research Institute, Germany
11.Independent researcher, Canada
12.Science for Life Extension Foundation, Russia
13.Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Louisville, USA
Abstract
Purpose: This paper formalizes long-term trajectories of human civilization as a
scientific and ethical field of study. The long-term trajectory of human civilization can be
defined as the path that human civilization takes during the entire future time period in
which human civilization could continue to exist.
Approach: We focus on four types of trajectories: status quo trajectories , in which
human civilization persists in a state broadly similar to its current state into the distant
future; catastrophe trajectories , in which one or more events cause significant harm to
human civilization; technological transformation trajectories , in which radical
technological breakthroughs put human civilization on a fundamentally different course;
and astronomical trajectories , in which human civilization expands beyond its home
planet and into the accessible portions of the cosmos.
Findings: Status quo trajectories appear unlikely to persist into the distant future,
especially in light of long-term astronomical processes. Several catastrophe,
technological transformation, and astronomical trajectories appear possible.
Value: Some current actions may be able to affect the long-term trajectory. Whether
these actions should be pursued depends on a mix of empirical and ethical factors. For
some ethical frameworks, these actions may be especially important to pursue.
Keywords: long-term trajectories, human civilization
1. Introduction
What will human civilization look like in one million, one billion, or one trillion years?
These are questions of broad scientific and ethical significance, yet they are neither well-
studied nor well-understood. While cosmology has probed stellar and physical dynamics
1
in the deep future (Adams 2008), studies of human futures in demography, economics,
sustainability science, political science, and related disciplines tend to concentrate on
upcoming decades, often relying on simple extrapolations of existing trends, or on
scenario writing. But important civilizational processes could play out over longer time
scales. To restrict attention to near-term decades may be akin to the drunk searching for
his keys under the streetlight: it may be where empirical study is more robust, but the
important part lies elsewhere.
In this paper, we seek to formalize long-term trajectories of human civilization as a
scientific and ethical field of study. We synthesize perspectives from a range of fields,
including moral philosophy, demography, economics, sustainability science, risk
analysis, futures studies, political science, archaeology, climatology, and astrobiology.
Using insights from these fields, we establish four broad classes of trajectories and
describe important details for each. The four classes of trajectories are:
(1)Status quo trajectories , in which human civilization persists in a state broadly
similar to its current state into the distant future
(2)Catastrophe trajectories , in which one or more events cause significant harm to
human civilization
(3)Technological transformation trajectories , in which radical technological
breakthroughs put human civilization on a fundamentally different course
(4)Astronomical trajectories , in which human civilization expands beyond its home
planet and into the accessible portions of the cosmos
These four classes of trajectories represent the major potential long-term trajectories
of human civilization. They depict human civilization staying roughly level (1), shrinking
(2), or potentially expanding via technological breakthrough (3) or astronomical
expansion (4). Scenarios that do not fit in any one of these four classes appear unlikely.
Some scenarios can fit in multiple classes: for example, technological breakthrough could
lead to either catastrophe or astronomical expansion. However, each class contains
distinct features worthy of separate consideration and drawing on separate scholarly
traditions. Status quo trajectories draw from the trend extrapolations of demography,
economics, sustainability science, and related disciplines (e.g., Field et al. 2014; United
Nations 2017a). Catastrophe trajectories draw from analysis of global catastrophic and
existential risks, in particular studies of the aftermath of these events (e.g, Maher and
Baum 2013; Dartnell 2014; Denkenberger and Pearce 2014). Technological
transformation trajectories draw from futures studies, especially related to technological
singularity and related notions of radical technological change (e.g., Miller 2012; Eden et
al. 2012; Hanson 2016). Finally, astronomical trajectories draw from astrobiology,
relating the socio-technological possibilities of space travel to the astronomical structure
of the universe (e.g., Ćirković 2002; Haqq-Misra and Baum 2009; Armstrong and
Sandberg 2013). To our knowledge, these various lines of inquiry have not previously
been synthesized into a formal study of long-term trajectories of human civilization.1
1 Some prior studies covering similar ground include Maher and Baum (2013), which analyzes long-term
trajectories mainly in the context of catastrophe scenarios but with some attention to status quo and
astronomical trajectories, and Beckstead (2013), which develops moral philosophy arguments for caring
about long-term trajectories.
2
The study of long-term trajectories is further important because some current actions
may affect long-term outcomes. These include actions that affect the risk of catastrophe,
the onset of transformative technologies, or the expansion of human civilization into
outer space. How these actions should be evaluated depends on empirical details about
the nature of long-term trajectories as well as ethical theories concerning the trajectories’
valuation.
In Section 2, we further develop the conceptual and ethical foundations of long-term
trajectories of human civilization. We argue that the trajectories can be defined and
evaluated in a variety of ways, consistent with a variety of empirical and ethical
perspectives. We discuss details of status quo and catastrophe trajectories in Sections 3
and 4. Section 5 presents sketches of possible technological transformation and
astronomical trajectories. We discuss details of technological transformation and
astronomical trajectories in Sections 6 and 7. Section 8 concludes.
2. Conceptual and Ethical Foundations
The long-term trajectory of human civilization can be defined as the path that human
civilization takes into the long-term future. The long-term can in turn be defined as the
entire future time period in which human civilization could continue to exist. Given
uncertainty about which trajectory human civilization will take, we speak in terms of
trajectories in the plural, to emphasize the variety of trajectories that appear possible from
our current vantage point.
Human civilization is a more complex concept. Dictionary definitions of civilization
emphasize an advanced state of cultural, organizational, social, and technological
development.2 “Human” could be defined as the species Homo sapiens sapiens .
However, over long time scales, human descendants are likely to become a different
species via genetic drift (Wills 2008). It may also be possible for humans (or their
descendants) to engineer new biological species or non-biological beings (e.g., robots)
that are capable of continuing civilization into the future ( More and Vita-More 2010) .
Therefore, this paper uses the term “human civilization” to refer to any civilization that
traces to the current human population. This definition includes civilizations led by
genetic descendants of Homo sapiens sapiens , as well as civilizations led by biological or
non-biological beings that are engineered by Homo sapiens sapiens or its genetic
descendants. This definition permits a study of long-term trajectories that does not need
to constantly account for whether the civilization is still in some sense “human”.
It will often be advantageous to think of the trajectories in quantitative terms, in the
form of one or more time series. In other words, specific trajectories are what one obtains
from plotting one or more key attributes of human civilization (on which more shortly) as
a function of time, with time going from the present into the long-term future. A full
understanding of long-term trajectories also requires qualitative description of what is
going on in the trajectories: the story behind the numbers.
Figure 1 shows some illustrative trajectories. These trajectories are for illustrative
purposes only; no precision is intended. Also, these are not the only forms that the
trajectories could take. Indeed, as discussed throughout this paper, the trajectories could
have a variety of forms and could in some cases even be negative. Note that Figure 1
2 See e.g. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civilization;
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/civilization.
3
does not label the vertical axis. Instead, it uses an unspecified aggregate measure of
human civilization. Other figures throughout this paper do the same. This is done in
deference to the possibility of using a variety of measures for the total size of a
civilization. Plots of attributes other than total size, such as averages across the
population or the degree of inequality within the population, may appear differently.
TimePositive Technological Transformation
and/or Astronomical Trajectory
Status Quo Trajectory
Catastrophe Trajectory
Figure 1. Illustrative trajectories.
This raises the question of which attributes of human civilization should be focused
on. Studies of near-term trajectories tend to focus on population, economic production,
quality of life, and select natural resources and other environmental parameters. These
attributes can also be considered for long-term trajectories, though with some
complications. Over the long-term, human civilization may not be using the same natural
resources as it currently is, and the environment may change sufficiently that near-term
environmental parameters are unimportant. The form of civilization may likewise change
enough that current conceptions of economic production, security, and quality of life do
not meaningfully apply. Even current conceptions of population could be inapplicable to
some long-term scenarios, such as those in which civilization is led by something other
than Homo sapiens sapiens .
Given the wide range of long-term possibilities, we call for greater care in the
selection of attributes for quantifying long-term trajectories than for short-term
trajectories, and for greater emphasis on qualitative descriptions to clarify what is going
on in different trajectories.
As with near-term trajectories, the selection of attributes can also depend on ethical
factors. While a complete review of ethical theories is beyond the scope of this paper,
what follows is a partial overview.3 Some ethical theories value total quality of life
aggregated across the population, while others value average quality of life of members
of the population, and still others favor improvements for the less well-off members of
the population (Ng 1989; Arrhenius 2000; Adler 2012). The average-based theories
3 More detailed discussions of ethical issues of relevance to long-term trajectories and other future
outcomes can be found in, among other sources, Portney and Weyant (1999), Weisbach and Sunstein
(2007), Schwartz and Milligan (2016), Scheffler (2018), and Tonn (2018).
4
would have less interest in tracking the population in different trajectories, while those
focused on the less well-off members would be especially interested in inequality in
distributions across population members for different trajectories. A different type of
theory values the survival and flourishing of humanity into the future, but does not value
its instantaneous size or per-person metrics (Schwartz 2011; Frick 2017). Ethical theories
also diverge on the (dis)value of deception, i.e. on whether ignorance is bliss (Nozick
1974; Ng 1990; Sagan 2006).4 These theories point to different attributes, especially for
scenarios involving large-scale deception, such as if human minds are confined to virtual
reality environments.5 Other points of divergence are on whether the natural environment
(Norton 1984; Agar 2000; Morito 2003) or non-human animal welfare (Johansson-
Stenman 2018) are of intrinsic value—valuable for its own sake—or only of instrumental
value as something that improves human civilization. This divergence points in different
directions for scenarios in which human civilization thrives while causing greater and
greater harm to natural environments or non-human animal populations. Finally, there is
also divergence on how much importance to place on suffering and/or other negative
value relative to happiness and/or other positive value (e.g., Baum 2008; Gloor and
Mannino 2016; Sotala and Gloor 2017). Ethical theories emphasizing negative value
would tend to be more interested in tracking the long-term trajectories of negative value,
and vice versa for positive value. Indeed, ethical theories emphasizing negative value
could even consider the survival and growth of the human population to be a bad thing if
it substantially increased the amount of suffering.
These are among the reasons why ethical theory is an important part of the study of
long-term trajectories. Another important reason is for the relation of long-term
trajectories to contemporary human affairs. This is because some current actions could
affect the long-term trajectory of human civilization, including actions that change the
risk of major catastrophes, the prospects for radical technological breakthrough, and/or
the prospects for the colonization of outer space. The importance of these actions depends
on their effect on long-term trajectories and on how much long-term trajectories are
valued. Some ethical theories have inter-temporal neutrality, valuing long-term effects as
much as short-term effects, while other ethical theories discount future values or only
value that which affects existing persons (Parfit 1984; Arrhenius 2003; Weinberg 2008).6
Interpreting the significance of long-term trajectories for contemporary human affairs
requires attention to these and other ethical issues.
As an illustration of the significance of long-term trajectories for contemporary
human affairs, consider the case of time-neutral total utilitarianism, in which all welfare
—human or otherwise—is valued equally, regardless of when it occurs. We stress that
4 Nozick (1974: 44-45) argues against “experience machines” that provide people with seemingly fulfilling
but false virtual realities; Sagan (2006: 217-218) argues against ignorance and proposes an 11th
commandment of “Thou shalt understand the world, figure things out”. In contrast, Ng (1990) argues that
accurate knowledge should only be valued to the extent that it increases welfare, and it should be disvalued
if it reduces welfare.5 For one argument to this effect, see Bostrom (2003). Such scenarios are dramatized in the popular film
The Matrix. An alternative perspective on these scenarios proposes that they are not actually deceptive, but
instead involve different processes underlying the same reality we believe to exist (Chalmers 2005).6 Ethical theories that only value existing persons may nonetheless place some concern on long-term
trajectories insofar as existing people care about long-term trajectories; see Finneron-Burns (2017, Section
2.4).
5
this view is selected for illustration purposes only and is not intended as an endorsement,7
nor do we claim that this is the only view for which long-term trajectories are important.
This view would place great value on long-term trajectories involving large amounts of
welfare. This leads to some potential claims about what current decision making should
prioritize:
(A)Reducing the risk of human extinction, because extinction would result in the loss of
all future generations.
(B)Reducing the risk of major catastrophes that would lead to the permanent loss of
advanced human civilization.
(C)Expediting technological breakthroughs and ensuring that they would improve
welfare.
(D)Expediting space colonization and ensuring that it would improve welfare.
(E)Improving near-term welfare, because long-term trajectories will be the same either
way, or because the effect of current decisions on long-term trajectories is not
understood well enough to guide decision making.
One can imagine a case for each of these five claims. (A) could hold if humanity
faces extinction threats and if extinction is the only thing that could change its long-term
trajectory. (B) could hold if humanity faces major catastrophic risks and if such
catastrophes would diminish the long-term trajectory. (C) could hold if technological
breakthroughs can be achieved before catastrophe occurs. (D) could hold if space
colonization can be achieved before catastrophe occurs and before a technology
breakthrough occurs. Finally, (E) could hold if contemporary actions would not affect
long-term trajectories.
As noted in Section 1, attention typically goes to (E), though without consideration of
long-term trajectories. Prior literature studying the matter has tended to support either (A)
or (B). Sagan (1983), Parfit (1984), Ng (1991), and Matheny (2007) argue for prioritizing
the reduction of human extinction risk on grounds that extinction would end all future
generations. Bostrom (2013) and Maher and Baum (2013) argue for prioritizing the
reduction of the risk of any catastrophe that would cause significant long-term harm to
human civilization. Similarly, Beckstead (2013) argues for any action that improves long-
term trajectories and suggests inconclusively that reducing the risk of these long-term
catastrophes may be the most effective approach. However, this prior literature generally
lacks careful empirical study of potential long-term trajectories, making it difficult to
assess which claim is correct or how to weigh them in decision making.
3. Status Quo Trajectories
Status quo trajectories involve the current civilization continuing in something like its
current form into the long-term future. Status quo trajectories do not necessarily involve
total stasis—indeed, stasis may be unlikely—but they do involve the continuation of
current trends without major discontinuities.
Exactly what qualifies as a status quo trajectory is a fuzzy and debatable matter. It
could refer to continuity in the state of human civilization, or continuity in the trends of
7 Indeed, some of the authors of this paper disagree with this view.
6
change in the state, or even continuity in trends in changes of trends.8 For example, the
current human population is steadily increasing at a decreasing rate. Another matter is
how large and/or abrupt of a deviation there needs to be for a trajectory to no longer
qualify as status quo. The accumulation of status-quo trends in economic and
technological development, and in environmental and resource degradation, compounded
over decades, centuries, millennia, or even longer, likely results in something very
different from the present civilization. It is a matter of interpretation whether this
difference is large enough to qualify as outside the status quo. Indeed, some projections
of catastrophe derive from extrapolations of current trends, especially trends of global
environmental change and natural resource depletion (Rockström et al. 2009; Baum and
Handoh 2014), while some projections of radical technological transformation derive
from extrapolations of current trends, such as projections of transformative artificial
intelligence scenarios based on the “Moore’s law” trend in computer hardware
performance (Moravec 1998; Kurzweil 2005). It is similarly a matter of interpretation
whether the current civilization is a continuation of the status quos that existed 1,000,
100, or even just 20 or 30 years ago, given the many changes there have been in politics,
culture, and technology.
For purposes of this paper, we will restrict status quo trajectories to those with no
radical changes to the state of human civilization or its underlying trends. Status quo
trajectories would keep important attributes of human civilization in a form that would be
broadly recognizable to current observers. (Which attributes of human civilization are
important can be derived from ethics and related factors, as discussed in Section 2.) For
example, a status quo trajectory could involve significant environmental degradation and
technological advancement that combine to keep attributes such as population at a similar
size or growth rate. This conception of status quo trajectories permits some changes in
the important attributes, but not the more extreme changes that may be possible. Some
more extreme changes are discussed in the sections below on the other types of
trajectories.
Near-term trajectory analyses often present a range of possible future trajectories,
given a range of different assumptions. For example, the United Nations (2017a) offers
probabilistic projections of population growth scenarios through 2100, with a 95%
prediction interval range of roughly 9.5 billion to around 13.5 billion humans at that time.
Figure 2 presents three trajectories of United Nations population data for past and future
world populations. Each of these trajectories could be considered status quo.
The above discussion uses metrics based on human attributes. Other ethical
perspectives can point in different directions. For example, current aggregate value may
be negative if non-human animal welfare is taken into account. The farm animal
population is much larger than the human population; an estimated 68 billion non-human
animals were slaughtered for food worldwide in 2012 (United Nations 2012). A
substantial fraction of them suffer in factory farms (Mallon 2005; DeGrazia 2009),
plausibly so much that their existence, and in turn aggregate global value, is net negative.
Fortunately, status quo trajectories may change this, such as via “in vitro meat” that could
substitute factory farms for painless meat production (Bhat and Fayaz 2011; Post 2012).
8 In mathematical terms, this could be the state of human civilization as shown in Figures 2-3 as well as its
first and second derivatives with respect to time.
7
For ethical views that include non-human animal welfare, this is an important
development to track.
197520002025205020752100 19502468101214Population (billions)Upper 95%
Lower 95%50%
Future
ProjectionsHistorical
Estimates
Figure 2. Historical world population estimates for 1950-2015, and future population
projections out to 2100 at three prediction intervals, based on data from United Nations
(2017b; 2017c).
Over the long-term, the persistence of status quo trajectories appears rather unlikely.
Instead, civilization is likely to either die out or transform. If nothing else, civilization
would presumably end around a few hundred million to a few billion years from now,
when Earth becomes uninhabitable due to the Sun becoming warmer and larger
(O’Malley-James et al. 2014; Wolf and Toon 2015). But it would be a remarkable feat for
a status quo trajectory to persist for so long. The frequency of major extinction events in
Earth’s history suggests that the status quo civilization is unlikely to survive for one
billion more years. Survival into the far future may require transformative technology
and/or astronomical expansion, which may be likely to happen eventually as long as
catastrophe is avoided. Indeed, rapid ongoing technological and social change suggests
that some sort of major transformation is likely to occur relatively soon. Finally, there
have been major changes before, such as from agriculture and industrialization, which
further suggests the possibility of future trajectory changes. As noted above, it is a matter
of interpretation whether some of these changes push outside the status quo. Still, we find
it hard to expect any reasonable interpretation of the status quo to persist into the long-
term future.
Perhaps we underestimate the durability of the status quo civilization. Perhaps past
upheavals are no longer applicable. Perhaps current civilization is highly resilient to a
range of catastrophes and/or agile at avoiding them. Perhaps radical technological
breakthroughs and space travel will prove elusive. In that case, the status quo could hold
for a long time. But it would seem at least as possible to overestimate the durability of the
status quo civilization, given our present vantage point from within it. Our civilization
seems quite robust, given its current dominant position on Earth. But this perspective
may be biased by the fact that we are within the status quo. Indeed, our status quo world
may be less durable and more historically and environmentally contingent than it would
seem, including our international relations (e.g., Lebow 2015), our civilization (e.g.,
Richerson et al. 2001), and our very existence (e.g., Ćirković et al. 2010). Thus, while we
cannot rule out the long-term viability of status quo trajectories, other trajectories appear
more likely.
8
4. Catastrophe Trajectories
Among catastrophe trajectories, the simplest to analyze are those involving human
extinction. Following extinction, basic attributes including population, economic
production, and quality of life all fall to zero.9 More complex are catastrophes that some
people survive, but in a form that is qualitatively different from the status quo
civilization. Analysis of these sub-extinction catastrophes requires attention to the
prospects for humans in what could be a radically altered world, and to how readily
survivors could rebuild some form of civilization.
Prior research has identified a number of human extinction risks, including nuclear
war, collision between Earth and a large asteroid or comet, supervolcano eruption, global
warming, runaway artificial intelligence, physics experiment disasters, and scenarios
involving multiple major catastrophes (e.g., Asimov 1981; Rees 2003; Leggett 2006;
Bostrom and Ćirković 2008; Häggström 2016). Some of these events would likely result
in immediate human extinction if they occurred—for example, a physics experiment
disaster could alter the astronomical vicinity, rendering life on Earth impossible (Turner
and Wilczek 1982; Ord et al. 2010). For other events, the outcome is more ambiguous—
for example, asteroids, comets, volcanoes, and nuclear war could all block sunlight,
decimating global agriculture, but some people may be able to survive on stored food or
food grown from biomass or fossil fuels (Denkenberger and Pearce 2014; Baum et al.
2015a). Tonn and MacGregor (2009) study a “singular chain of events” in which a series
of catastrophes befall humanity; they find that, in the absence of a decisive extinction
event, it is actually difficult to get to extinction. We find this reasoning compelling while
noting the difficulty of assessing unprecedented catastrophe scenarios.
For sub-extinction catastrophes, the long-term trajectories depict the fate of the
survivor populations. Will they persist for some extended time in their diminished state,
and then die out later on? Will they rebuild something along the lines of the pre-
catastrophe, status quo civilization? Will they go on to achieve technological
transformation and/or space colonization? The fate of survivor populations depends first
on how they fare in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe and then on their long-
term prospects to manage and/or rebuild civilization.
An important variable for catastrophe trajectories is the speed of the catastrophe.
Some catastrophes could cause significant harm to human civilization in a short period of
time, such as nuclear wars or pandemics. Other catastrophes work more slowly, such as
global warming or the depletion of certain natural resources. Slow catastrophes give
humans more time to adapt to the new conditions, though the conditions may also be
more durable. What follows is written mainly with fast catastrophes in mind, though
some of the discussion may also apply to slow catastrophes.
Figure 3 presents a variety of potential catastrophe trajectories. It distinguishes
between catastrophes resulting in extinction, in survival with neither agriculture nor
industry, and in survival with agriculture but not industry. Agriculture and industry are
essential features of modern human civilization and are discussed in detail below. Figure
3 also shows survivor populations either remaining in the post-catastrophe state,
recovering back towards the state of the current civilization, or enduring subsequent
catastrophes. Finally, Figure 3 shows the current civilization avoiding catastrophe and
9 A possible exception would be if automated technology maintains economic production without human
upkeep, though current technology is not sufficiently automated for this.
9
maintaining the status quo trajectory, as well as the current civilization and two post-
catastrophe civilizations achieving technological transformation and/or astronomical
trajectories. These are all among the possible trajectories a post-catastrophe civilization
(or the current civilization if it avoids catastrophe) could take. As with Figure 1, these
trajectories are for illustrative purposes only; no precision is intended. Additionally, the
vertical axis is not labeled for the same reason as with Figure 1.
TimeTech. Transformation
and/or Astronomical
Current
Civilization
CatastropheStatus Quo
ExtinctionSurvival, no Agriculture or IndustryAgriculture, no Industry Recovery of
AgricultureRecovery
of IndustryRecovery
of Industry
CatastropheTech. Transformation
and/or AstronomicalTech. Transformation
and/or Astronomical
ExtinctionExtinctionExtinction
Figure 3. Illustrative catastrophe trajectories.
4.1 The Immediate Aftermath
In the immediate catastrophe aftermath, survivors will need to secure their basic needs,
especially food and water. Most of the contemporary human population obtains food and
water from civilization: they do not procure their own. This portion of the population
could have a relatively difficult time in the immediate aftermath, though this depends on
the functioning of civilization. If food and water provision continues, then a relatively
large population could survive. Thus, an important question is how resilient the basic
functioning of civilization is to major catastrophes.10 If civilization fails, the survivor
population could consist mainly of subsistence farmers, hunters and gatherers, and other
people who procure their own basic needs. These people are, at present, often considered
among the world’s poorest, but post-catastrophe they may be among the best off.
Another group that could fare well is those who prepared for the catastrophe. This
could include inhabitants of military bunkers and continuity of government facilities,
citizen survivalists (“preppers”), and inhabitants of refuges designed for this purpose
(Hanson 2008; Jebari 2015; Baum et al. 2015b; Turchin and Green 2017). These people
could have ample food and water, medical supplies, and other resources needed to
survive without civilization, as well as resources that can be used to maintain and/or
rebuild civilization, such as seeds, tools, and information. It could also include much
larger populations if there are large-scale catastrophe preparations. At present, most
institutional catastrophe preparation is for smaller, more frequent catastrophes such as
earthquakes, hurricanes, and sub-pandemic disease outbreaks. However, there are
proposals for preparations for large-scale preparation, such as in food stockpiles or
10 The resilience of civilization to catastrophes is explored in the field of global systemic risk (e.g., Helbing
2013; Baum and Handoh 2014; Centeno et al. 2015).
10
alternative means of food production to maintain food through catastrophes that disrupt
traditional agriculture (Denkenberger and Pearce 2014; Baum et al. 2015a). If proposals
along these lines are implemented, survivor populations could be much larger.
For survivor populations, the availability of appropriate information could be a
significant factor. The contemporary population is increasingly urban and lacking in the
knowledge of how to survive without civilization. However, contemporary civilization
has a lot of information documented in libraries, bookstores, and online. While the
internet may not be available post-catastrophe, many libraries and bookstores contain
basic information about such matters as how to purify water or grow food. Some libraries
and bookstores will even have books that are specifically on the topic of how to survive
catastrophes (e.g., Dartnell 2014; Denkenberger and Pearce 2014). If survivors can access
this information, their prospects could significantly improve.
The availability of food, water, information, and other resources can depend heavily
on the specifics of the catastrophe. For example, some catastrophes could cause major
disruptions to agriculture (Section 4.3). Nuclear wars are likely to destroy urban areas in
targeted countries. Pandemics will leave built infrastructure intact, and may have limited
effect in some areas, such as remote islands and inland areas inhabited by uncontacted
peoples.
4.2 Successive Generations
If a population is able to survive the immediate catastrophe aftermath and the subsequent
years of potentially turbulent conditions, then its subsequent trajectory will depend on,
among other things, its ability to produce additional generations of people. If the initial
survivor population is too small, or insufficiently healthy, it may fail to remain viable.
The population would also need a suitable age and gender distribution. Note that what
matters here is not the total worldwide survivor population, but the survivor population(s)
that are in sufficient proximity to reproduce. Small survivor populations in
geographically distant locations, such as scattered small bunkers or survivalist camps,
may contribute little to future generations.
In conservation biology and related fields, the concept of minimum viable population
refers to the smallest isolated population able to survive through genetic and
environmental changes, with high (generally greater than 90%) probability, for many
generations into the future (Shaffer 1981:132). The probability of surviving and thriving
increases with the size of the population. Estimates between 150 and 40,000 have been
proposed for the minimum viable human population (Lynch et al. 1995; Impey 2015),
though some studies argue against any fixed minimum number (Flather et al. 2011;
2016). Some historical analysis of human genetics suggest that there was a genetic
bottleneck of as few as 1,000 to 3,000 individuals (Harpending et al. 1998; Li and Durbin
2011; but see Sjödin et al. 2012). Isolated bands of perhaps just 70 humans may have
originally colonized both the Americas and Polynesia (Murray-McIntosh et al. 1998; Hey
2005), suggesting a minimum viable population of roughly 100 to 500 given a favorable
environment (Hanson 2008; Daily et al. 1993) such as a dedicated refuge for surviving
global catastrophes (Hanson 2008; Baum et al. 2015b; Turchin and Green 2017).11
11 It may be possible to recreate a viable human population with advanced synthetic biology technology
following a human extinction event (Yampolskiy 2016).
11
However, in an unstructured and potentially inhospitable post-catastrophe environment,
such a population may have a low probability of long-term survival.
This research suggests that larger survivor populations are more likely to succeed,
especially in unfavorable post-catastrophe conditions. A population that is just large
enough for genetic viability may face other ongoing threats, such as disease, natural
disasters, or internal strife. The corresponding trajectory could be low for a period of time
before going to zero. That period of time could involve numerous generations, just as
small populations on small, remote islands have persisted in isolation for numerous
generations. (Certain catastrophe scenarios, such as extreme pandemics, may leave
survivors only on small, remote islands.) However, it is unlikely that such populations
could avoid a terminal catastrophe for thousands or millions of years into the future, in
contrast with a larger population. Indeed, a small survivor population could die out much
sooner, such as due to natural disasters, resource overexploitation, internal strife, and/or
other factors.
Alternatively, an initially small population could grow much larger. This is especially
likely if the population is on a continent, a large island, or a small island that is
sufficiently near a continent or large island that the population can reach the larger
landmass. Since this is where the overwhelming majority of the current human
population resides, there is a high likelihood of survivors in these places, except perhaps
in certain catastrophe scenarios that specifically affect the core population, such as
extreme pandemics. If there are small survivor populations on or near continents or large
islands, they will have an abundance of land to spread out on, making it feasible to grow
their population to much larger numbers. However, whether the population, economy,
and other attributes can recover to pre-catastrophe levels depends on other factors, in
particular regarding agriculture and industry.
4.3 Agriculture
Long-term trajectories could depend heavily on whether agriculture is maintained
through the catastrophe or whether it is redeveloped afterwards. Agriculture has played a
central role in human civilization to date, and it is difficult to imagine post-catastrophe
populations recovering advanced civilization without agriculture. Thus, analysis of long-
term catastrophe trajectories should consider prospects for agriculture.
A major catastrophe could significantly alter how humans obtain food. Modern
industrial agriculture requires complex resource inputs, supply chains, and labor pools
that could be vulnerable to a variety of large catastrophes. For example, Huff et al. (2015)
find that major food shortages could occur from pandemics that disrupt the labor supply.
More dramatic disruptions to agriculture could come from catastrophes that send
particulate matter into the atmosphere, including nuclear war, volcano eruption, and
asteroid collision, which send dust into the atmosphere, lowering surface temperatures
and reducing sunlight and precipitation over a period of years (Xia et al. 2015).
Catastrophes that disrupt industrial agriculture could see survivors obtaining food via
other means, including temporary food stockpiles, food grown from biomass or fossil
fuels, or hunting and gathering (Denkenberger and Pearce 2014; Baum et al. 2015a).
Hunting and gathering could be especially viable if the human population crashes,
leaving an abundance of naturally growing food readily available. Indeed, there is some
evidence that at least some hunter-gathers are able to meet their basic needs with
12
relatively few hours of effort, though this is a point of debate in anthropology (e.g., Bird-
David 1992). Furthermore, hunter-gathers may be especially likely to survive some
catastrophes, since they often are among the remote uncontacted peoples that would
likely survive catastrophes such as pandemics. Thus, despite the dominance of agriculture
among pre-catastrophe populations, survivor populations could be hunters and gatherers.
For catastrophes that leave a larger portion of the population intact, agriculture is
more likely to endure. Much of the large contemporary urban population has little
firsthand experience with either agriculture or hunting/gathering, but it is accustomed to
thinking of agriculture as a primary means of food production. Furthermore, information
about agriculture is widely documented in libraries and bookstores, as are agriculturally
productive species, both of which could be sought out by survivors. This cultural and
material legacy makes the survival or rapid redevelopment of agriculture more likely.
Figure 4 presents two illustrative probability distributions of the redevelopment of
agriculture. Each version contains three parts: boxes representing the probabilities that
agriculture is never lost and that it is never redeveloped (x and z), and a curve showing a
probability distribution from the time that the catastrophe occurs to the time the survivor
population dies (ya and yb). Each version shows it being most likely that agriculture is
lost and later recovered and least likely that the survivor population dies without
recovering agriculture (i.e., z < x < ya|yb). Figure 4a shows the survivor population being
most likely to recover agriculture shortly after the catastrophe and successively less likely
to recover agriculture as time goes by, whereas Figure 4b shows the opposite. Figure 4 is
presented for illustration only and should not be treated as a best-guess probability
distribution estimate. For example, a best-guess would probably not show the yb curve as
the mirror image of the ya curve: instead of having the same curvature, it would likely
have a more gradual curvature.
Timex
yaz
Catastrophe
OccursSurvivor
Population Dies(a)
Timex
ybz
Catastrophe
OccursSurvivor
Population Dies(b)
Figure 4. Illustrative probability distributions of post-catastrophe agriculture. The
area x is the probability agriculture is never lost; ya and yb are the probability it is lost
and redeveloped; and z is the probability it is lost and never redeveloped. The curves at
ya and yb show the probability per unit time of agriculture being redeveloped.
A variety of factors can inform the crafting of agriculture redevelopment probability
distributions along the lines of Figure 4. Some of these point to it being more likely that
agriculture would be redeveloped sooner, as in Figure 4a. The first post-catastrophe
generations would benefit from strong cultural memories of agriculture, including how it
13
works and the fact that it can produce lots of food. This could lead them to seek to
redevelop agriculture and could also facilitate their success. Furthermore, they may have
access to important crop and livestock species. These species were developed over
thousands of years to maximize productivity and nutritional value, and in this regard are
much better than the ancient varieties. Some more recent varieties, such as RoundUp
Ready® crops designed to resist a chemical herbicide, may fail to produce significant
yields in the absence of modern agriculture, but heirloom varieties would still be
considerably more productive than what was available to early humans. These species
would likely be more available immediately following the catastrophe; as time goes by,
absent human intervention, they may die out or be lost. The availability of grains may be
particularly important. Because grains are suitable for long-term storage and
transportation, they are easily taxed and thus support the formation of states. Fortunately,
modern grains are widely available across all major world regions.
On the other hand, immediately following the catastrophe, agricultural land may be
damaged from salination, topsoil depletion, and other effects of modern industrial
agriculture. Accessible mineral reserves of phosphorus, a crucial fertilizer, will also be
largely depleted (Cordell and White 2011). These conditions would gradually improve
over time, improving agriculture prospects for later post-catastrophe generations. If these
factors dominate, then the probability distribution for redeveloping agriculture may look
more like Figure 4b.
If agriculture does not quickly recover, then prospects for agriculture could depend on
fluctuations in Earth’s climate. Over the past million years, the climate has fluctuated
between cold (glacial) and warm (interglacial) periods, with interglacials occurring every
~100,000 years and lasting for ~15,000 years (Archer 2008).12 Earth is currently in an
interglacial, the Holocene, which began ~10,000 years ago; the previous interglacial, the
Eemian, spanned from ~130,000 to ~115,000 years ago (Dahl-Jensen et al. 2013). The
rise of agriculture—and the civilization it permits—coincide with the Holocene
interglacial, i.e. the last 10,000 years. This may not be a coincidence: the favorable
Holocene climate may have been a prerequisite for the development of agriculture
(Richerson et al. 2001).
The Holocene’s warm climate alone may not have been sufficient. Ice core data
suggest that the Holocene has a relatively stable climate compared to previous
interglacials (e.g., Petit et al. 1999). Meanwhile, archaeological evidence suggests that
the human lineage has had similar cognitive capabilities for ~250,000-300,000 years
(McBrearty and Brooks 2000; McBrearty 2013). This suggests that agriculture can only
plausibly be developed during some interglacials. As a rough starting estimate, the
historical data suggest one third of interglacials are suitable, since three interglacials have
occurred in the last 300,000 years, but these data are too sparse to produce reliable
conclusions.
Early post-catastrophe climates will differ from early Holocene conditions in one
important respect: heightened atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Climate
models project anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to extend the current interglacial
for ~30,000 to ~500,000 years (Archer and Ganopolski 2005; Herrero et al. 2014). This
does not necessarily make the early redevelopment of agriculture more likely, because
12 Patterns with frequencies of ~41,000 years and ~23,000 years are also observed; see e.g. Haqq-Misra
(2014).
14
emissions are making Earth’s climate substantially different than in the early Holocene.
Indeed, a warmer world could pose substantial risks to survivor populations, including
through ecological changes such as desertification, or greater viability of certain diseases.
However, post-catastrophe emissions would presumably be minimal, causing climates to
gradually cool.13 At some point in the future, before the next glacial period, the survivor
population may experience conditions similar to the early Holocene—though perhaps not
with the same stability.
Taking these various factors into account, we tentatively estimate agriculture
probabilities as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 is shown as a hand-drawn sketch to
emphasize our tentativeness. Figure 5 shows a substantial probability of agriculture not
being lost (box x) and a much smaller probability of it never being redeveloped (box z). It
further shows some probability of agriculture being quickly redeveloped (the far-left peak
of the curve above y). The probability per unit time of the redevelopment of agriculture
then quickly falls as survivors struggle under heightened atmospheric greenhouse gas
concentrations. The probability per unit time rises again as climates return to something
similar to the early Holocene. Finally, the probability per unit time begins an oscillatory
pattern corresponding to glacial-interglacial cycles. Figure 5 shows this pattern extending
into the indefinite future; in practice, the pattern would eventually fade as Earth shifts
into new climate regimes, as caused by the warming and expanding Sun (on time scales
of hundreds of millions of years), if not sooner.
Timex
y
z
Catastrophe
Occurs
Figure 5. Tentative probability distribution of post-catastrophe agriculture. The area
x is the probability agriculture is never lost; y is the probability it is lost and redeveloped;
and z is the probability it is lost and never redeveloped. The curve at y shows the
probability per unit time of agriculture being redeveloped.
Figure 5 is hardly the only way to plot probabilities of rediscovering agriculture.
Indeed, the probabilities depend on several factors, including the catastrophe scenario
(including the severity of the catastrophe and the geographic distribution of survivors),
pre-disaster preparations, and future greenhouse gas emissions. Likewise, current (pre-
catastrophe) civilization can improve prospects in several ways. One is to avoid
13 Under most scenarios, there will be some post-catastrophe emissions. For example, carbon dioxide and
methane are being released from thawing permafrost (Schuur et al. 2015); this process will continue due to
thermal inertia in the climate system unless the catastrophe causes significant ongoing cooling. However,
this effect is small relative to the effects from anthropogenic emissions. There may be some scenarios in
which the effect is larger, such as scenarios that release the large reservoirs of undersea methane clathrates
(on which, see e.g. Buffett and Archer 2004), though these scenarios are less typical.
15
catastrophes that would be especially disruptive to agriculture, thereby increasing x.
Another is to prepare for the redevelopment of agriculture, such as by preserving
heirloom agricultural species, thereby increasing y, especially in early post-catastrophe
years. Current civilization can also affect the prospects for redeveloping agriculture by
increasing or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the net effect of emissions on
the probability of redeveloping agriculture is unclear.
4.4 From Agriculture to Industry
In addition to agriculture, modern civilization also depends heavily on industry, as do
prospects for technological transformation and space colonization. The current human
civilization developed industry after agriculture, and for good reason: agriculture enables
the food surplus needed to develop and work in industry. Likewise, a catastrophe that
loses agriculture would likely also lose industry, and industry would only be redeveloped
after agriculture, whereas a catastrophe that loses industry would not necessarily also lose
agriculture. Long-term catastrophe trajectories will thus depend on whether industry is
maintained through the catastrophe or whether it is redeveloped afterwards, for which
probabilities could be drawn analogously to those in Figure 4.
The short time—just a few thousand years—between the development of agriculture
and the development of industry may suggest that if agriculture redevelops, industry is
likely to soon follow.
However, there are reasons to be skeptical of this. First, there is only one data point
available: industry developed only once, in Britain, and then spread around the world.14
One data point does not make for reliable analysis: perhaps typical periods from
agriculture to industry are much larger or much smaller than a few thousand years.
Second, the historical path from agriculture to industry was circuitous. The Chinese,
Greeks, Indians, and Romans were all intellectually advanced agricultural civilizations
with large trading networks, but they never developed industry. This suggests that the
development of industry could have been less of an inevitability and more of a historical
coincidence.
Histories of the industrial revolution offer several explanations. Allen (2009)
emphasizes the importance of Britain having expensive labor yet inexpensive energy and
financial capital, which combined to stimulate the invention and spread of industrial
technologies. Mokyr (2009) emphasizes the Enlightenment and scientific revolution, the
fruits of which fed entrepreneurs who were empowered by Britain’s institutional
structure. Crafts (2010) proposes that both sets of factors may have been important. If the
previous industrial revolution was indeed contingent on a long list of factors, prospects
for the post-catastrophe redevelopment of industry may be poor, because it is relatively
unlikely that a multitude of factors would be present concurrently within a survivor
population.
Survivor populations would face substantially different resource availabilities. Some
of the historical ‘low-hanging fruit’ will no longer be available. For example, the
cheapest and most accessible fossil fuels have already been burned; if these were crucial
for Britain’s industrial revolution, then post-catastrophe industry may be technologically
or economically infeasible. Similarly, the cheapest and most accessible deposits of metal
14 The fact that industry only developed once may not mean much if it spreads so quickly that multiple
independent developments of industry are unlikely.
16
ores have also been extracted. These factors all suggest a lower probability for the
recovery of industry.
Other factors point in the opposite direction. For energy, wind and hydro will be
available and are relatively easy to tap. Hydro power in particular has a high energy
return on investment, at least under modern conditions (Hall et al. 2014), and has a large
global energy production potential (Zhou et al. 2015), making it a promising energy
source for recovering industry. Additionally, while major metal deposits will be depleted,
these metals themselves will still be present. Indeed, much of the metal has been
processed into more usable forms (e.g., steel instead of iron ore) and is concentrated in
cities and landfills, the ruins of which could be a good site for post-catastrophe mining.
Some of these materials may not be readily usable, such as damaged plastics or certain
metals. For instance, even medieval European forges, which lacked bellow systems, were
unable to reach temperatures sufficient to melt iron. Nonetheless, some materials are
likely to be usable. And if nothing else, the ruins of industry could provide an enduring
proof-of-concept and inspiration to redevelop industry.
Given the different conditions faced by survivor populations, it is likely that any
civilization that reemerges post-catastrophe would be different from the current one. If
resource depletion is the dominant factor, then successive civilizations would tend to be
smaller. Alternatively, if the persistent accumulation of knowledge, concentration of
metals and other resources in cities, and optimization of agricultural species is the
dominant factor, then successive civilizations would tend to be larger. Our present
expectation is that successive civilizations will tend to be smaller, due mainly to the
depletion of fossil fuels, but we caution that conclusions on this matter cannot be made
with confidence at this time.
It is more difficult to project post-catastrophe labor, intellectual, and economic
conditions. The catastrophe could decimate the labor supply, but it could do the same for
labor demand, with an unclear net effect on the cost of labor. Early post-catastrophe
populations may retain some Enlightenment and scientific intellectual tendencies, though
this is less likely if survivors hail mainly from pre-catastrophe populations of hunter-
gatherers and subsistence farmers. Alternatively, survivors could view industry as a cause
of the catastrophe and therefore something to be rejected. If industry is not redeveloped
within the first few post-catastrophe generations—for example, if it must wait until a
future interglacial period—then these social conditions become especially opaque.
Taking these various factors into account, we tentatively estimate industry
probabilities as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 specifically shows the probability
distribution of the recovery of industry at different times given the presence of
agriculture. It shows a relatively small probability that industry will not be lost (x),
corresponding to catastrophe scenarios in which neither agriculture nor industry are lost.
It shows comparable probabilities for industry being or not being recovered, given its loss
(y and z). The large z (especially compared to z in Figure 5) is due to the possible
historical contingency of the British industrial revolution, as well as the possible narrow
time window for industry to redevelop (a few thousand years during interglacials).
Finally, Figure 6 shows that industry is likely to be redeveloped sooner after the
catastrophe occurs (the curvature of y), due to the social and intellectual advantages that
may be retained by the survivor population immediately following the catastrophe.
17
Timexyz
Catastrophe
OccursSurvivor
Population Dies
Figure 6. Tentative probability distribution of post-catastrophe industry. The area x is
the probability industry is never lost; y is the probability it is lost and redeveloped; and z
is the probability it is lost and never redeveloped. The curve at y shows the probability
per unit time of industry being redeveloped.
5. Sketches of Technological Transformation and Astronomical Trajectories
A hallmark of technological transformation and astronomical trajectories is that they
could both enable rapid expansion of human civilization. (Technological transformation
could also lead to catastrophe.) The corresponding trajectories may be similar for both
technological transformation and astronomical trajectories and are thus worth considering
together before diving into the details of each type of trajectory.
Figure 7 presents several possible trajectories. Each trajectory begins with
exponential growth and then goes on a different path. There are two sets of trajectories,
one of which lags the other. The leading trajectory shows 2t during the exponential
growth phase, while the lagging trajectory shows 2t-n, with t denoting time and n being an
arbitrary finite positive number. The lagging trajectory thus shows delayed technological
transformation or space colonization. Figure 7a shows exponential growth continuing
indefinitely. Figure 7b shows exponential growth continuing until some fixed size limit is
reached, which could be some sort of carrying capacity. Figure 7c shows exponential
growth continuing until some fixed point in time is reached. Finally, Figure 7d shows
exponential growth continuing until some fixed point in time is reached, at which point
civilization crashes. A delay in technological transformation or space colonization results
in a long-term reduction in the trajectory in all cases except 7b.
These are not the only possible trajectories. For example, growth could follow a non-
exponential curve, or it could taper off gradually, such as in a logistic curve. Trajectories
could also oscillate, similar to the rises and falls of civilization in catastrophe and
recovery trajectories. Or, trajectories could combine elements from multiple curve types,
for example if civilization stops growing as in (b) or (c), and then crashes as in (d), or if
civilization branches into different populations with different trajectories. Figure 7 is not
intended to be exhaustive, only illustrative of some important possible types of
trajectories.
18
(a) (b)
(c) (d)2t2t-n 2t2t-n
2t
2t-n2t
2t-n
TimeTime
TimeTime
Figure 7. Illustrative technological transformation and astronomical trajectories,
including baseline and delayed (by n units of time) exponential growth trajectories for
four trajectory types.
6. Technological Transformation Trajectories
Human civilization is currently going through a period of rapid technological change.
The status quo trajectory is likely to bring much technological progress. Because of this,
it can be difficult to distinguish between status quo and technological transformation
trajectories: the status quo trajectory would seem to be one of at least some technological
transformation. However, for the technological transformation trajectories, we have in
mind an even more profound set of technologies that, if developed, would put human
civilization in a fundamentally different place than what may be reached via status quo
trajectories. These technologies are often associated with the concept of “technological
singularity” because they portend a state change in human civilization (Sandberg 2010).
The change can be good or bad, depending on the details of what precisely happens, and
depending on one’s ethical perspective. Indeed, compared to status quo and catastrophe
trajectories, the evaluation of technological transformation trajectories can be especially
sensitive to subtle differences in ethics.
To illustrate technological transformation, this section describes several classes of
potential breakthrough technology: nanotechnology, biotechnology, and artificial
intelligence. These are not necessarily the only potential breakthrough technologies, but
they are among the most widely discussed and perhaps also the most plausible. We
review these technologies to convey a sense of the transformation that may be possible
and then analyze implications for long-term trajectories. The discussion focuses on
trajectories involving technological catastrophe or positive outcomes on Earth; positive
outcomes in outer space are discussed in section 7 on astronomical trajectories.
19
6.1 Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology refers broadly to technology with nanometer-scale components.
Nanotechnology is in increasingly wide use with applications in many areas including
sunscreens, textiles, and medicine. It is an important area of technology but not
particularly transformative. The form of nanotechnology that, if built, is more likely to be
transformative, is known as atomically precise manufacturing (APM), which is the
assembly of materials with atomic precision. While some doubt the feasibility of APM
(Smalley 2001), proof-of-principle can be found in certain biomolecules, such as
ribosomes (Freitas and Merkle 2004), and scanning tunneling microscopes, which can
perform rudimentary APM (Møller et al. 2017).
If full development of APM is achieved, it could bring a dramatic transformation in
human civilization’s ability to manufacture a wide range of products. Drexler (2013)
terms this “radical abundance”, as APM could help eliminate major problems in the fields
of food security, treatable diseases, clean energy, and global warming (via clean energy
and the manufacture of devices to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere15). APM
could also cause problems, such as via enhanced production of weaponry, though this
depends on which weapons are built and how they are used. Finally, APM could greatly
facilitate space travel, enabling astronomical trajectories, such as by improving the cost
and performance of spaceship materials (Drexler 2013).
6.2 Biotechnology
Biotechnology is another sector that is already large yet still only scratching the surface
of its transformative potential. Biotechnology is used heavily for livestock and crop
plants, a practice that dates to the early days of agriculture or even earlier, and continues
to this day with increasing sophistication. Perhaps the biotechnology application with the
most transformative potential is in the modification or “enhancement” of human nature.
Biotechnology is already in use in such things as cochlear implants, which enable the
deaf to hear, and in pharmaceutical cognitive stimulants such as modafinil. Future
biotechnologies could turn humans into something much more physically and cognitively
capable (Bostrom and Sandberg 2009). In doing so, it could transform human civilization
into a civilization of one or more new types of beings that can substantially outperform
humans in many ways.
6.3 Artificial Intelligence
At the time of this writing, AI is going through a renaissance, with machine learning
algorithms powering advances in many sectors including transportation, medicine,
finance, military (Maas et al. 2017), and much more. However, current AI is modest in
comparison to some expectations of future AI. In particular, it has been proposed that AI
could eventually surpass humanity in important respects, with transformative
consequences (Miller 2012; Bostrom 2014; Hanson 2016; Sotala 2017). Such AI could be
superintelligent, with much-greater-than-human intellectual capacity, and/or
superpowerful, with much-greater-than-human capacity to effect change in the world.
Depending on the details of its design, such AI could be transformative for human
civilization by solving many of its problems, creating massive new opportunities, or,
15 For more on carbon dioxide removal, see e.g. Lackner et al. (2012); Tavoni and Socolow (2013).
20
alternatively, by causing mass destruction (Miller 2012; Bostrom 2014; Sotala and
Yampolskiy 2015; Yampolskiy 2015).
6.4 Combinations of Technologies
Nanotechnology, biotechnology, and AI could combine in transformative ways (Eth
2017). Nanotechnology could transform the production of biotechnology, enabling mass
adoption of transformative biotechnologies. Biotechnology might facilitate the
development of detailed ‘brain emulations’ which accurately simulate human beings,
creating one form of AI (Hanson 2016). In turn, AI could facilitate the development of
nanotechnology and biotechnology. The AI-biotechnology intersection also includes the
prospect of mind uploading, in which human minds are ‘uploaded’ into digital computers,
enabling a radically different form of human civilization. Other technologies may also
play major roles. Our brief discussion of possible technologies is not intended to be a
comprehensive overview—it is intended simply as an overview of the sorts of ways in
which technology could transform human civilization.
6.5 Technological Catastrophe Trajectories
The aforementioned technologies could result in several types of trajectories. They could
cause catastrophe, such as by nanotechnology being used to mass produce major
weaponry, biotechnology being used to engineer deadly pathogens, or AI getting out of
control and harming people. Catastrophes from transformative technologies could be
considerably more severe than their counterparts involving natural processes or regular
technologies: nanotechnology could enable larger wars, biotechnology could enable more
severe pathogens, and highly capable AIs could produce uncontrollable disasters. Thus,
catastrophes from transformative technologies appear more likely to cause extinction or
the loss of agriculture and/or industry. However, for catastrophes of a given severity, the
trajectories themselves are likely to be broadly similar regardless of whether the
catastrophe is caused by transformative technology or something else.
There is one exception: trajectories involving negative value. Some attributes of
human civilization cannot be negative, including population and certain measures of
economic production.16 Others, however, potentially can be. An important one is
subjective experience or quality of life. For a given person, subjective experience is
negative when, all else equal, they would rather be unconscious—not have any
experience at all.17 This occurs, for example, in medical situations in which anesthetics
are used. If a person’s aggregate life experience is negative, that person would arguably
16 An example of a measure of economic production that cannot be negative is the amount of money spent
on goods and services—people cannot spend negative amounts of money. This measure is seen, for
example, in the International Monetary Fund’s definition of gross domestic product as “the monetary value
of final goods and services—that is, those that are bought by the final user—produced in a country in a
given period of time” (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/gdp.htm). Other measures of
economic production can be negative, for example when it is measured relative to initial resource inputs, in
which case economic production could produce something less valuable than the initial inputs.17 More precisely, subjective experience is negative when a person would evaluate that experience as being
worse than the absence of experience, with both being evaluated on their own and not in the context of
broader circumstances. There are circumstances in which a person may prefer to have a negative
experience. For example, a person may prefer to remain conscious during an extreme emergency, such as a
battlefield injury, in order to survive and persevere, even though that would mean enduring great pain.
21
(depending on one’s ethical perspective) be better off not living, and euthanasia may be
an appropriate option.18
Fortunately, the current human population would only benefit from anesthesia or
euthanasia in uncommon circumstances. The aggregate subjective experience across the
total population would appear to be decidedly positive. Furthermore, it is unlikely that
this would change under a wide range of status quo trajectories. Even if the status quo
changes for the worse, human psychology has considerable adaptive capacity. Thus,
studies of subjective wellbeing find that humans are able to maintain a reasonable quality
of life even in seemingly bleak circumstances, such as prostitutes in the slums of Calcutta
(Biswas-Diener and Diener 2001).19
Transformative technologies could bring negative aggregate human subjective
experience (Sotala and Gloor 2017). This could occur, for example, by empowering
someone or something to push human lives in unbearable ways, such as via mass
enslavement or sadism. If transformative technologies are controlled by a small portion
of the human population, then they could seek their own benefit to the detriment of
everyone else. Alternatively, if autonomous technologies themselves gain control, then
they could inflict massive harm. For example, some have worried that an AI designed to
improve subjective experience could inadvertently do the opposite, due to subtleties of
human psychology that are hard to explain to AI (e.g., Muehlhauser and Helm 2012). If
the aggregate would be net negative, then the corresponding trajectory would appear as in
Figure 7, except flipped vertically, with negative values instead of positive values on the
vertical axis.
Alternatively, transformative technologies could massively improve conditions. They
could reduce or even eliminate poverty, disease, environmental degradation, and other
major challenges, resulting in excellent versions of status quo trajectories. Transformative
technologies could also bring advances that go well beyond the status quo. Some of these
involve space colonization, which is discussed further below. However, even just on
Earth, much is possible. For example, if human minds are uploaded into computers, they
could experience what to them feels like thousands of years in just a few years of
conventional calendar time (Hanson 2016).20 Alternatively, and perhaps even more
controversially, it may be possible for transformative technology to outright replace
humanity with something superior, thereby bringing a massive improvement to the
aggregate value on Earth. Thus, even without space colonization, transformative
technology could bring a much-greater-than-status quo trajectory.
Still, over the long-term, any civilization that is only on Earth will presumably have
certain limits. Earth is limited in volume, in the mass and atomic distribution of available
matter, in the quantity of incoming solar radiation, and in its inhabitable lifetime.21 Thus,
18 The concept of negative subjective experience is commonly discussed in the context of negative
utilitarianism and related ethical frameworks (e.g., Smart 1958; Griffin 1979; Benatar 2006; Baum 2008).19 A possible exception is for populations under highly repressive regimes, especially totalitarian and
genocidal regimes, which may create negative subjective wellbeing at larger scales. Additionally, as
discussed in Section 4, the total current value may be negative if non-human animal welfare is also
accounted for.20 Of course, thousands of experienced years of negative subjective welfare would be a massive loss, not a
massive improvement. The possibility of mind uploading heightens the importance of ensuring positive
welfare.21 These parameters may differ from those considered for near-term limits to growth without technological
transformation. Nonetheless, they appear to provide strict upper limits for what a more advanced
22
without space colonization, the long-term trajectory could grow to high levels, though not
as high as is possible in astronomical trajectories, and it would go to zero when Earth
becomes uninhabitable. Furthermore, it would go to zero at a similar time as status quo
trajectories, if both trajectories make it that long. While a civilization with technological
transformation may survive somewhat longer, presumably it would die out as the Sun
becomes so large that it engulfs the planet. Thus, without space colonization,
technological trajectories would likely look something like Figure 7b, except with an
eventual decline to zero, as in Figure 7d. Therefore, we should expect the largest and
most long-lasting civilizations to come from space colonization.
7. Astronomical Trajectories
The status quo human civilization has already done some basic space exploration, and
there is active discussion of establishing permanent colonies on extraterrestrial bodies,
especially on Mars.22 However, these space missions are dependent on human civilization
on Earth, and likewise are quite small relative to the rest of human civilization. If
missions like these will continue to characterize human activity in outer space, then they
will have minimal effect on the long-term trajectory of human civilization. In particular,
the missions will not significantly increase the total size of human civilization, nor will
they increase civilization’s longevity. As long as they are dependent on Earth, when
Earth civilization eventually dies out, so too will they.
Self-sufficient space colonies could persist for longer. The simplest of these would be
self-sufficient versions of the current proposals for small colonies. Perhaps the colonies
will be dependent on Earth at first, but gradually become self-sufficient. In that case, they
may be able to survive beyond Earth’s inhabitable lifetime if they are located further than
Earth from the Sun, such as on Mars or certain large moons such as Ganymede or
Callisto, or around other stars. If there are only a few such colonies, and if they are of the
small size of the colonies currently being proposed, then they would amount to a small
tail at the end of the overall long-term trajectory.
The astronomical opportunity greatly increases if colonies can expand themselves on
their respective extraterrestrial bodies, just as human civilization has expanded on Earth.23
This could come, for example, via terraforming, in which habitable atmospheres are
engineered on extraterrestrial bodies, and then expanding from small, primarily indoor
colonies to outdoor habitation across the entire celestial body. Alternatively, if human
minds have been uploaded into digital computers or replaced by AI, then terraforming
may be unnecessary for forming large extraterrestrial colonies. In either case, such
colonies could come to rival Earth in size, multiplying the size of human civilization by
(approximately) the number of colonies.
If extrasolar bodies can be reached, the number of colonies could be quite large.
Recent exoplanets research estimates 22% of Sun-like stars have Earth-like planets
(Petigura et al. 2013), which would mean that the galaxy contains billions to tens of
billions of planets that humans could colonize. If human civilization is in digital instead
technological civilization can do on (or with) Earth.22 An example of such discussion is the Mars One project, though this project has also been criticized (Do
et al. 2016).23 This sort of advanced spacefaring capacity could also increase the resilience of human civilization—for
example, by enabling engineering at astronomical scales, which can increase resilience to cosmic
explosions such as supernovae and gamma ray bursts (Ćirković and Vukotić 2016).
23
of biological form, then the opportunity increases even further. Even if only a small
fraction of these planets are reached, human civilization could grow much larger.24
This raises the question of how civilization would reach so many destinations. The
simplest approach is for humanity to send missions from Earth to each destination.
However, with so many destinations, this could strain Earth’s resources. A more viable
approach would be for colonies to self-replicate, with early colonies launching additional
colonies as human civilization gradually spreads out across the cosmos. Indeed, using
self-replicating tools could enable space colonization at even intergalactic scales
(Armstrong and Sandberg 2013).
The resulting growth pattern may approximate an exponential trajectory, with each
colony producing new colonies at some rate. Indeed, prior studies of the hypothetical
growth of civilizations in the galaxy have often assumed exponential growth. This
assumption is central to the Fermi paradox: if extraterrestrial civilizations expanded
exponentially, humans are likely to have observed them. Perhaps there are no
extraterrestrial civilizations, in which case it may be feasible for human civilization to
expand exponentially. Or perhaps they could not sustain exponential growth at galactic
scales, in which case human civilization may also not expand so rapidly across the
cosmos (Haqq-Misra and Baum 2009).25
There is a geometric reason to expect astronomical expansion at a less-than-
exponential trajectory. First, assume that civilization has already maximized value per
unit volume, which seems plausible for a civilization that is sufficiently advanced to be
able to spread across the cosmos. Second, assume that the civilization is expanding at the
maximum possible rate, which may be the speed of light or some other rate given its
capacity for expansion. Given that the civilization starts from a small point in space
(Earth in the case of human civilization, Earth being a small point in space relative to the
rest of the cosmos), the size of civilization would be at most a sphere whose radius
increases at the above-mentioned maximum possible rate. With fixed value per volume,
this implies that the value of civilization is increasing at a cubic rate, noting that the
volume of a sphere is (4/3)πr3.
But suppose that human civilization manages to grow exponentially across the
cosmos. What happens next? Some of the possibilities are sketched in Figure 7.
(Analogous sketches can be made for growth at cubic or other rates.) In astronomical
terms, 7a would be if expansion across the cosmos never slows; 7b would be if a carrying
capacity is reached, such as if civilization reaches all the habitable planets in the galaxy
or all the habitable galaxies in the universe and can expand no further; 7c would be if
there is a time when expansion cannot continue, such as if the expansion of the universe
ensures some galaxies are pushed too far apart for civilization to reach any more of them;
and 7d would be if space colonies fail at some time, such as if the cosmos becomes
uninhabitable due to proton decay, heat death, or some other long-term physical process.
Current understanding of the cosmos suggests that 7d, or a variant of 7d, is most
likely: it is unlikely that civilization can persist in the cosmos indefinitely. For example, it
is expected that, in about 1014 years, all stars will stop shining, and in about 1036 years,
24 Still further opportunity could come from constructing “Dyson swarms” around stars to collect most of
their radiation (e.g., Armstrong and Sandberg 2013).25 Although for a counter-argument, which suggests that a colonization project for the reachable universe
would be a relatively simple task for a star-spanning civilization of a given level, see Armstrong and
Sandberg (2013).
24
proton decay will end matter in its current form (Adams 2008). This is a large but
ultimately finite duration. It has been proposed that civilization may be able to move to
other universes (Kaku 2005), in which case indefinite survival may be possible, but this
physics is speculative and appears unlikely, given what is currently known.
Supposing that human civilization will eventually end, this leaves the question of
what may happen in the interim. It is likely that interim trajectories will look broadly
similar to 7b for at least an interior geographic core of the civilization. This is because
any given finite region of the cosmos presumably has some finite carrying capacity for
human civilization, and that an exponentially expanding civilization is likely to reach that
carrying capacity long before the region becomes uninhabitable, prompting a crash as in
7d.
After a region’s carrying capacity is reached, the trajectory will not necessarily
stabilize. The trajectory could decline due to resource depletion and/or competition
between populations. Competition on astronomical scales could be analogous to
competition between nations or other geographic regions on Earth, potentially pitting
planets or star systems against each other; the latter could result in actual star wars.26
Whereas in the initial growth of civilization, newly colonized regions would lack
competition and thus could be developed for the sole benefit of the colonizing population,
in later times, the emergence of competition could cause populations to divert resources
to defense and conquest, thereby reducing the total size of civilization. The magnitude of
the reduction could depend on factors such as the viability of conquest at astronomical
scales and the capacity of astronomical scale civilization to endure attack.
At the geographic outskirts of civilization, the trajectory could look more like 7a or
7b. 7a would persist if colonization is slow relative to the size of the accessible cosmos,
such that human civilization never fills up the entire region that it potentially could. In
this case, the total long-term trajectory would look like 7d.
Finally, it should be noted that space colonization could be net negative according to
some metrics (Sotala and Gloor 2017). Space colonization could expand net negatives on
Earth achieved via technological transformation (Section 6.5). Alternatively, space
colonization could bring net negatives even when conditions on Earth are net positive.
Outer space is a less hospitable environment than Earth, which could make net negatives
more likely. It is further conceivable that the outer space environment may be conducive
to oppressive regimes and/or violent conflict that also yield net negatives. As with
technological transformation, if space colonization would bring net negatives, then the
trajectories would look like those in Figure 7, except flipped vertically.
8. Discussion and Conclusion
This paper has presented a range of ethical and empirical aspects of the long-term
trajectories of human civilization. This is in contrast with most prior research, which
focuses on near-term trajectories, perhaps due to a mix of ethical favoritism for the near-
term and scientific reluctance to take on the seemingly more speculative nature of long-
term trajectories. In this paper, we hope to have shown that the long-term trajectory is
both an important topic and one on which intelligent things can be said. We also hope to
26 The astronomical distances involved here make this situation not exactly analogous to competition on
Earth. For example, communication is much slower at distances of light years or more, which precludes
certain types of military tactics.
25
have produced some basic findings about long-term trajectories and demonstrated the
sorts of research that can advance the topic.
One basic finding is that the status quo human civilization appears unlikely to persist
over the long-term. Instead, it is likely to either end catastrophically or expand
dramatically. Over the very long term, it appears likely that human civilization will cease
to exist. However, it may be a very long time until that happens, especially if civilization
colonizes space and of course only if it avoids the near-term threats to human extinction.
In the meantime, civilization could follow a wide range of trajectories, from mere
survival without agriculture or industry to extensive colonization of the cosmos.
Which of these trajectories will occur can be important for contemporary decision
making. For example, recall the five potential claims about contemporary decision
making introduced in the Section 2 discussion of time-neutral total utilitarianism:
(A)Current decisions should prioritize reducing the risk of human extinction, because
extinction would result in the loss of all future generations.
(B)Current decisions should prioritize reducing the risk of major catastrophes that would
lead to the permanent loss of advanced human civilization.
(C)Current decisions should prioritize expediting technological breakthroughs and
ensuring that they would improve welfare.
(D)Current decisions should prioritize expediting space colonization and ensuring that it
would improve welfare.
(E)Current decisions should prioritize improving near-term welfare, because long-term
trajectories will be the same either way.
Given a time-neutral total utilitarianism ethical framework, these claims can be
evaluated in terms of the effect that contemporary decisions have on long-term
trajectories. In light of this paper’s analysis, the following can be said about the sorts of
circumstances in which each claim would hold:
(A)There are risks to human extinction that contemporary decisions can affect, and risks
of sub-extinction catastrophes would not affect the long-term trajectory of human
civilization. Sub-extinction catastrophes would have no long-term effect if they
would cause no delay in space colonization, which is unlikely, or if delays in space
colonization would have no effect on long-term trajectories.
(B)There are risks to the loss of advanced human civilization that contemporary
decisions can affect, and survivors of such catastrophes are unlikely to recover
advanced civilization.
(C)There are opportunities to influence technological breakthroughs.
(D)There are opportunities to influence space colonization.
(E)There are no significant opportunities to affect major catastrophes, technological
breakthroughs, or space colonization.
The finding that status quo trajectories are unlikely to persist could suggest that claim
(E) is false. If human civilization will end up in some non-status quo trajectory, then
perhaps there are opportunities to affect this trajectory. This is not necessarily the case:
human civilization may end up in a certain non-status quo trajectory regardless of what
26
actions are currently taken. For example, perhaps a looming catastrophe will destroy
civilization, and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. However, we do not believe
this to be the case. We see a wide range of opportunities in particular to affect some
combination of catastrophic risks, potentially transformative technologies, and space
colonization. Which opportunities are best to pursue will depend on both ethical factors
and the specifics of the opportunities available to different people.
Within the context of catastrophic risks, we can compare claims (A) and (B). A
number of catastrophic risks may not result in immediate extinction. This paper’s
analysis suggests attention to several factors, in particular the post-catastrophe retention
or recovery of agriculture and industry, as well as the long-term significance of delays in
space colonization. Though tentative, the analysis finds that the success of post-
catastrophe human civilization is not guaranteed, with the recovery of industry being a
particularly strong impediment. Catastrophe recovery would likely induce delays in space
colonization, which could cause long-term trajectory declines. These findings suggest
that claim (A) may be false and claim (B) may be true. In other words, contrary to some
claims in the catastrophic risk literature, extinction risks may not be categorically more
important than large sub-extinction risks. Whether a particular opportunity to reduce an
extinction risk is better than a particular opportunity to reduce a large sub-extinction risk
will depend on the particulars of the opportunities as well as the relative long-term
trajectories.
Likewise, the relative importance of opportunities to reduce catastrophic risks,
develop transformative technologies, and launch space missions also depends on a
number of particulars. One important variable is timing. For example, if technological
breakthroughs or space colonization will occur relatively quickly, this can diminish the
importance of many potential catastrophe scenarios, especially where the technologies or
space colonies can mitigate the catastrophic risk. Alternatively, an early catastrophe
could preclude the development of transformative technology or the launch of space
colonies. Additionally, transformative technology may greatly facilitate space
colonization, and may be worth pursuing prior to extensive efforts to colonize space.
Some of these events could play out on relatively near-term time scales, making them
especially important to track and pursue opportunities to influence.
The above discussion pertains specifically to time-neutral total utilitarianism. We
emphasize that our discussion of this ethical view is intended as an example, not as an
endorsement. It is not our aim in this paper to argue for any particular ethical theory—it
is only to show how long-term trajectories can be important according to some ethical
theories, and likewise how the study of long-term trajectories should include ethical
theory in addition to empirical detail. For the many ethical theories that do value future
events, the study of long-term trajectories is highly important. The stakes are extremely
large, and there may be a lot that people today can do to have a positive impact. For these
reasons, the long-term trajectories of human civilization should be an important focus of
both academic scholarship and societal decision-making.
Acknowledgments
This paper is based on a discussion led by Baum on 9 September 2017 at the Workshop
on Existential Risk to Humanity, which was hosted by Häggström and Sandberg at
Chalmers University of Technology. We thank Catherine Rhodes, Aron Vallinder, and
27
Johan Wästlund for comments at the discussion. We also thank Jacob Haqq-Misra and
two anonymous reviewers for helpful feedback on an earlier version of this paper and
Melissa Thomas-Baum for assistance with graphics.
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