Seth D. Baum and Andrea Owe. On the intrinsic value of diversity. Inquiry, forthcoming, DOI 10.1080/0020174X.2024.2367247.
A foundational study of the ethics of diversity, covering the entire category of diversity instead of the usual focus on social and biological diversity.
Seth D. Baum, 2026. Earth-cosmos binary. Futures, vol. 178 (April), article 103783.
A rough proposal for what humanity should do with the cosmos, if we have the opportunity.
Seth D. Baum, 2025. Manipulating aggregate societal values to bias AI social choice ethics. AI and Ethics, vol. 5, pages 1615-1627.
Some proposals call for AI systems to be aligned to aggregate societal values, but this aggregate can be manipulated, similar to the manipulation of voting schemes in democracy.
Seth D. Baum, 2025. Assessing the risk of takeover catastrophe from large language models. Risk Analysis, vol. 45, no. 4 (April), pages 752-765.
An LLM risk analysis comparing the characterstics of LLMs to the characteristics that may be needed to cause takeover catastrophe.
Seth D. Baum, 2024. Climate change, uncertainty, and global catastrophic risk. Futures, vol. 162 (September), article 103432.
An analysis of whether climate change should be classified as a global catastrophic risk.
Gary Ackerman, Brandon Behlendorf, Seth Baum, Hayley Peterson, Anna Wetzel, and John Halstead, 2024. The origin and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic: An expert survey. Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Technical Report 24-1.
168 experts from around the world provide views on how COVID-19 started and the accompanying implications for future pandemics.
Andreas Vilhelmsson and Seth D. Baum, 2023. Public health and nuclear winter: Addressing a catastrophic threat. Journal of Public Health Policy, vol. 44, no. 3 (September), pages 360-369.
A nuclear war could cause extreme global health problems, which the gloabl public health community must address.
Seth D. Baum and Vanessa M. Adams, 2023. Pandemic refuges: Lessons from two years of COVID-19. Risk Analysis, vol. 43, no. 5 (May), pages 875-883.
Jurisdictions including China and Western Australia have demostrated that refuges can protect populations during pandemics.
Andrea Owe and Seth D. Baum, 2023. From AI for people to AI for the world and the universe. AI & Society, vol. 38, no. 2 (April), pages 679-680.
The concept of "AI for people" errs in excluding nonhumans and should be expanded accordingly.
Seth D. Baum, 2023. Assessing natural global catastrophic risks. Natural Hazards, vol. 115, no. 3 (February), pages 2699-2719.
The risk of global catastrophe from natural origins may be larger than prior studies have estimated.
Seth D. Baum and Andrea Owe, 2023. Artificial intelligence needs environmental ethics. Ethics, Policy, & Environment, vol. 26, no. 1, pages 139-143.
Environmental ethicists can help address AI issues involving environmental impacts, the moral value of AI systems, and the future.
Andrea Owe, Seth D. Baum, and Mark Coeckelbergh, 2022. Nonhuman value: A survey of the intrinsic valuation of natural and artificial nonhuman entities. Science and Engineering Ethics, vol 28, no. 5 (October), article 38.
A detailed survey of the many ways in which nonhumans can be morally valuable for their own sake.
Seth D. Baum, 2022. Book review: The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity. Risk Analysis, vol. 42, no. 9 (September), pages 2122-2124.
A review of a book discussing a variety of topics related to existential risk.
Seth D. Baum, Robert de Neufville, Anthony M. Barrett, and Gary Ackerman, 2022. Lessons for artificial intelligence from other global risks. In Maurizio Tinnirello (Editor), The Global Politics of Artificial Intelligence. Boca Raton: CRC Press, pages 103-131.
AI risk is a relatively new field of study, but it can learn a lot from other risks including biotechnology, nuclear weapons, climate change, and asteroid impact.
Andrea Owe and Seth D. Baum, 2021. The ethics of sustainability for artificial intelligence. In Philipp Wicke, Marta Ziosi, João Miguel Cunha, and Angelo Trotta (Editors), Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI (CAIP 2021), Bologna, pages 1-17.
Prior work on AI has emphasized traditional concepts of environmental sustainability, but an ethical case can be made for a more long-term orientation.
Victor Galaz, Miguel A. Centeno, Peter W. Callahan, Amar Causevic, Thayer Patterson, Irina Brass, Seth Baum, Darryl Farber, Joern Fischer, David Garcia, Timon McPhearson, Daniel Jimenez, Brian King, Paul Larcey, and Karen Levy, 2021. Artificial intelligence, systemic risks, and sustainability. Technology in Society, vol. 67, (November), article 101741, doi 10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101741.
Applications of AI to environmental sectors such as agriculture create systemic risks by concentrating activities into a small number of large and fragile systems.
Peter Cihon, Moritz J. Kleinaltenkamp, Jonas Schuett, and Seth D. Baum, 2021. AI certification: Advancing ethical practice by reducing information asymmetries. IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, vol. 2, no. 4 (December), pages 200-209.
Certification can be a valuable governance tool for helping outside parties know whether AI groups are meeting important standards.
Andrea Owe and Seth D. Baum, 2021. Moral consideration of nonhumans in the ethics of artificial intelligence. AI & Ethics, vol. 1, no. 4 (November), pages 517-528.
The field of AI ethics has generally neglected the status of nonhumans, but there are important reasons why the field should give nonhumans more and better attention.
Cihon, Peter, Jonas Schuett, and Seth D. Baum, 2021. Corporate governance of artificial intelligence in the public interest. Information, vol. 12, article 275, doi 10.3390/info12070275.
A survey of how nine different types of actors can work to help orient corporate AI activities toward the public interest.
Robert de Neufville and Seth D. Baum, 2021. Collective action on artificial intelligence: A primer and review. Technology in Society, vol. 66 (August), article 101649, doi 10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101649.
Social science research provides a wealth of insight for the many important situations in which multiple parties need to work together to improve AI outcomes.
Seth D. Baum, 2021. Accounting for violent conflict risk in planetary defense decisions. Acta Astronautica, vol. 178 (January), pages 15-23.
Defense against asteroids and comets should seek to reduce, or at least not increase, the risk of violent conflict.
Seth D. Baum, 2021. Artificial interdisciplinarity: Artificial intelligence for research on complex societal problems. Philosophy & Technology, vol. 34, no. S1 (November), pages 45-63.
How AI can be used to ease the cognitive burdens of interdisciplinary research now and in the future.
McKenna Fitzgerald, Aaron Boddy, and Seth D. Baum, 2020. 2020 survey of artificial general intelligence projects for ethics, risk, and policy. Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Technical Report 20-1.
This survey finds 72 AGI R&D projects across 37 countries in 6 continents and classifies them in terms of risk/safety, ethics, and policy factors.
Seth D. Baum, 2020. Quantifying the probability of existential catastrophe: A reply to Beard et al. Futures, vol. 123 (October), article 102608, doi 10.1016/j.futures.2020.102608.
The best methods for quantifying existential risk are also the most difficult to implement.
Seth D. Baum, 2020. Medium-term artificial intelligence and society. Information, vol. 11, no. 6, article 290, doi 10.3390/info11060290.
Although the study of AI mainly focuses on near-term and long-term AI, the medium-term is also important.
Seth D. Baum, 2020. Deep learning and the sociology of human-level artificial intelligence – Book review: Artifictional Intelligence: Against Humanity’s Surrender to Computers. Metascience, vol. 29, no. 2, pages 313-317.
A review of the book Artifictional Intelligence by Harry Collins discussing the sociology of language as it relates to current and future AI.
Seth D. Baum, 2020. Social choice ethics in artificial intelligence. AI & Society, vol. 35, no. 1 (March), pages 165-176.
Proposals for AI to follow society's aggregate ethical views face difficult and important questions about how to define society.
Seth D. Baum, 2019. Risk-risk tradeoff analysis of nuclear explosives for asteroid deflection. Risk Analysis, vol. 39, no. 11 (November), pages 2427-2442.
Nuclear explosives could deflect asteroids away from Earth, but would nuclear deflection programs be worth the potential increase to violent conflict risk they could cause?
Seth D. Baum, 2019. Preparing for the unthinkable – Book review: End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World. Science, vol. 364, no. 6459 (September 20), page 1254.
Review of a new book by Bryan Walsh that surveys the field of global catastrophic risk for a wide readership.
Seth D. Baum, 2019. The challenge of analyzing global catastrophic risks. Decision Analysis Today, vol. 38, no. 1 (July), pages 20-24.
Seth D. Baum, Stuart Armstrong, Timoteus Ekenstedt, Olle Häggström, Robin Hanson, Karin Kuhlemann, Matthijs M. Maas, James D. Miller, Markus Salmela, Anders Sandberg, Kaj Sotala, Phil Torres, Alexey Turchin, and Roman V. Yampolskiy, 2019. Long-term trajectories of human civilization. Foresight, vol. 21, no. 1, pages 53-83.
Important decisions today can depend on what happens to human civilization millions, billions, or trillions of years into the future.
Seth D. Baum, 2018. Reflections on the risk analysis of nuclear war. In B. John Garrick (editor), Proceedings of the Workshop on Quantifying Global Catastrophic Risks, Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, pages 19-50.
A survey of the state of nuclear war risk analysis and its role in policy decision-making.
Seth D. Baum, 2018. Resilience to global catastrophe. In Benjamin D. Trump, Marie-Valentine Florin, and Igor Linkov (editors), IRGC Resource Guide on Resilience (Vol. 2): Domains of Resilience for Complex Interconnected Systems. Lausanne: EPFL International Risk Governance Center.
A summary of the use of resilience thinking to understand and address global catastrophic risk, written for the IRGC's academic and policy audience.
Seth D. Baum, 2018. Uncertain human consequences in asteroid risk analysis and the global catastrophe threshold. Natural Hazards, vol. 94, no. 2 (November), pages 759-775.
Asteroid collision is the most well understood global catastrophic risk, but this paper shows it's not so well-understood after all.
Seth D. Baum, 2018. Countering superintelligence misinformation. Information, vol. 9, no. 10, article 244, doi 10.3390/info9100244.
It is possible to correct misinformation about future artificial intelligence, but it may be more effective to prevent it from spreading in the first place.
Seth D. Baum, 2018. Superintelligence skepticism as a political tool. Information, vol. 9, no. 9, article 209, doi 10.3390/info9090209.
Skepticism about future artificial intelligence could be politicized in ways similar to skepticism about other issues such as climate change.
Seth D. Baum, 2018. Reconciliation between factions focused on near-term and long-term artificial intelligence. AI & Society, vol. 33, no. 4 (November), pages 565-572.
Instead of debating each other, those who favor near-term and long-term AI can pursue mutually beneficial opportunities.
Steven Umbrello and Seth D. Baum, 2018. Evaluating future nanotechnology: The net societal impacts of atomically precise manufacturing. Futures, vol. 100 (June), pages 63–73.
An assessment of the far-reaching potential effects of a technology that could revolutionize manufacturing.
Seth D. Baum and Anthony M. Barrett, 2018. A model for the impacts of nuclear war. Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Working Paper 18-2.
A model covering a wide range of impacts of nuclear detonations in terms of their effect on human lives and society.
Seth D. Baum, Robert de Neufville, and Anthony M. Barrett, 2018. A model for the probability of nuclear war. Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Working Paper 18-1.
A model covering 14 nuclear war scenarios and 60 historical nuclear war incidents, plus a detailed introduction to probability theory.
Seth D. Baum, 2017. A survey of artificial general intelligence projects for ethics, risk, and policy. Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Working Paper 17-1.
This first-of-its kind survey finds 45 AGI R&D projects across 30 countries in 6 continents and classifies them in terms of risk/safety, ethics, and policy factors.
Seth D. Baum, Anthony M. Barrett and Roman V. Yampolskiy, 2017. Modeling and interpreting expert disagreement about artificial superintelligence. Informatica, vol. 41, no. 4 (December), pages 419-427.
Seth D. Baum and Anthony M. Barrett, 2018. Global catastrophes: The most extreme risks. In Vicki Bier (editor), Risk in Extreme Environments: Preparing, Avoiding, Mitigating, and Managing. New York: Routledge, pages 174-184.
Global catastrophic risks are important but challenging to analyze, suggesting an integrated assessment research agenda.
Seth D. Baum and Anthony M. Barrett, 2017. Towards an integrated assessment of global catastrophic risk. In B.J. Garrick (editor), Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Catastrophic and Existential Risk, Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, pages 41-62.
The concept for and initial work on a research project to study all the global catastrophic risks together.
Seth D. Baum, 2017. On the promotion of safe and socially beneficial artificial intelligence. AI & Society, vol. 32, no. 4 (November), pages 543-551.
How to motivate AI researchers to choose socially beneficial designs, with emphasis on the social psychology of AI researchers.
Trevor N. White and Seth D. Baum, 2017. Liability law for present and future robotics technology. In Patrick Lin, Keith Abney, and Ryan Jenkins (editors), Robot Ethics 2.0, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages 66-79.
Liability law can handle current and near-future robots, but could be challenged by advanced future robots that merit legal personhood or pose global catastrophic risk.
Seth D. Baum, 2017. The social science of computerized brains – Book review: The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth. Futures, vol. 90, pages 61-63.
A review of a new book by Robin Hanson discussing the possibility of transfering human minds into computers.
Anthony M. Barrett and Seth D. Baum, 2017. Risk analysis and risk management for the artificial superintelligence research and development process. In Victor Callaghan, James Miller, Roman Yampolskiy, and Stuart Armstrong (editors), The Technological Singularity: Managing the Journey. Berlin: Springer, pages 127-140.
Established methodologies from risk analysis and risk management can help avoid catastrophe from future advanced AI.
Anthony M. Barrett and Seth D. Baum, 2017. A model of pathways to artificial superintelligence catastrophe for risk and decision analysis. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, vol. 29, no. 2, pages 397-414.
Introduces the ASI-PATH model of catastrophe from recursively self-improving AI.
Seth D. Baum, 2016. The ethics of outer space: A consequentialist perspective. In James S.J. Schwartz and Tony Milligan (editors), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Berlin: Springer, pages 109-123.
Outer space offers vast opportunities to do good by humanity or by extraterrestrial civilizations.
Seth D. Baum, David C. Denkenberger, and Joshua M. Pearce, 2016. Alternative foods as a solution to global food supply catastrophes. Solutions, vol. 7, no. 4, pages 31-35.
If a global catastrophe knocks out traditional agricultural, then non-traditional, alternative forms of agriculture could be used.
Seth D. Baum and Bruce E. Tonn (editors), 2015. Confronting future catastrophic threats to humanity [Special issue]. Futures, vol. 72 (September), pages 1-96.
A special issue of the journal Futures.
Seth D. Baum and Bruce E. Tonn, 2015. Introduction: Confronting future catastrophic threats to humanity. Futures, vol. 72 (September), pages 1-3.
Introductory editorial to a special issue of the journal Futures.
Seth D. Baum, David C. Denkenberger, and Jacob Haqq-Misra, 2015. Isolated refuges for surviving global catastrophes. Futures, vol. 72 (September), pages 45-56.
Refuges could help small populations survive global catastrophes if certain refuge design criteria are met.
Seth D. Baum, 2015. Confronting the threat of nuclear winter. Futures, vol. 72 (September), pages 69-79.
Many actions could reduce the probability or severity of the global environmental consequences of nuclear war.
Seth D. Baum, 2015. The far future argument for confronting catastrophic threats to humanity: Practical significance and alternatives. Futures, vol. 72 (September), pages 86-96.
A lot can be done to prevent major global catastrophes without appealing to the benefits that would go to people living thousands, millions, or billions of years in the future.
Seth D. Baum, 2015. Winter-safe deterrence as a practical contribution to reducing nuclear winter risk: A reply. Contemporary Security Policy, vol. 36, no. 2 (August), pages 387-397.
Part of a symposium on the concept of winter-safe deterrence.
Seth D. Baum, David C. Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce, Alan Robock, and Richelle Winkler, 2015. Resilience to global food supply catastrophes. Environment, Systems, and Decisions, vol. 35, no. 2 (June), pages 301-313.
If a global catastrophe devastates global food production, several options could keep human civilization alive and well.
Seth D. Baum, 2015. Risk and resilience for unknown, unquantifiable, systemic, and unlikely/catastrophic threats. Environment, Systems, and Decisions, vol. 35, no. 2 (June), pages 229-236.
A comparison of two major paradigms for analyzing and managing uncertain threats.
Seth D. Baum, 2015. Winter-safe deterrence: The risk of nuclear winter and its challenge to deterrence. Contemporary Security Policy, vol. 36, no. 1 (April), pages 123-148.
The possibility of global catastrophe from nuclear war suggests major revisions to the weapons used to discourage war.
Click here to view the extensive debate sparked by this paper.
Seth D. Baum, 2014. Film review: Snowpiercer. Journal of Sustainability Education, vol. 7, December issue (online).
A discussion of sustainability, resource management, and geoengineering themes in the film.
Seth D. Baum, 2014. The great downside dilemma for risky emerging technologies. Physica Scripta, vol. 89, no. 12 (December), article 128004, doi:10.1088/0031-8949/89/12/128004.
Decisions about whether to develop technologies that promise great benefits to humanity but come with a risk of human civilization being destroyed.
Seth D. Baum and Itsuki C. Handoh, 2014. Integrating the planetary boundaries and global catastrophic risk paradigms. Ecological Economics, vol. 107 (November), pages 13-21.
A framework for analyzing global threats to humanity and nature, illustrated with the case of the phosphorus biogeochemical cycle.
Seth D. Baum, 2014. Book review: Only One Chance: How Environmental Pollution Impairs Brain Development – and How to Protect the Brains of the Next Generation. Environmental Science & Policy, vol. 42 (October), pages 197-199.
A review of a new book by Philippe Grandjean discussing neurotoxic chemical pollution.
Seth D. Baum, 2014. Film review: Transcendence. Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 24, no. 2 (September), pages 79-84.
A discussion of transhumanism, ethics, and risk management themes in the film.
Seth D. Baum and Grant S. Wilson, 2013. The ethics of global catastrophic risk from dual-use bioengineering. Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine, vol. 4, no. 1, pages 59-72.
A discussion of ethical and legal issues arising from bioengineered technologies that could benefit humanity or pose risk of a global catastrophe.
Anthony M. Barrett, Seth D. Baum, and Kelly R. Hostetler, 2013. Analyzing and reducing the risks of inadvertent nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Science and Global Security, vol. 21, no. 2, pages 106-133.
An analysis of the possibility that the US or Russia could mistakenly conclude it is under attack and launch nuclear weapons in what it believes to be a counterattack.
Timothy M. Maher Jr. and Seth D. Baum, 2013. Adaptation to and recovery from global catastrophe. Sustainability, vol. 5, no. 4 (April), pages 1461-1479.
Human survivors of a global catastrophe may be able to adapt to post-catastrophe conditions and recover civilization.
Seth D. Baum, Timothy M. Maher, Jr., and Jacob Haqq-Misra, 2013. Double catastrophe: Intermittent stratospheric geoengineering induced by societal collapse. Environment, Systems and Decisions, vol. 33, no. 1 (March), pages 168-180.
A global catastrophe scenario involving climate change, geoengineering, and a separate catastrophe.
Jacob Haqq-Misra, Michael W. Busch, Sanjoy M. Som, and Seth D. Baum, 2013. The benefits and harm of transmitting into space. Space Policy, vol. 29, no. 1 (February), pages 40-48.
Radio transmissions from Earth to space are analyzed in terms of their imact on Earth and humanity.
Seth D. Baum, 2013. Teaching astrobiology in a sustainability course. Journal of Sustainability Education, February issue (online).
Considering life in the universe gives undergraduates a broader perspective on sustainability.
Seth D. Baum, 2012. Value typology in cost-benefit analysis. Environmental Values, vol. 21, no. 4 (November), pages 499-524.
Exploring the types of values held by costs and benefits strengthens our understanding of existing CBAs and suggests new innovations in CBA design.
Seth D. Baum, Destiny D. Aman, Andrei L. Israel, 2012. Public scholarship student projects for introductory environmental courses. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, vol. 36, no. 3 (August), pages 403-419.
A project for undergraduates to engage environmental issues as educated citizens of a democracy.
Seth D. Baum, Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, and Chris Karmosky, 2012. Climate change: Evidence of human causes and arguments for emissions reduction. Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 18, no. 2 (June), pages 393-410.
A response to skepticism about climate change as part of a broader review of climate change science and ethics.
Seth D. Baum, 2012. Discounting Across Space and Time in Climate Change Assessment. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University.
New development of the concept of space-time discounting including ethics theory, moral psychology survey research, and applications to climate change adaptation.
Erich W. Schienke, Seth D. Baum, Nancy Tuana, Ken J. Davis, and Klaus Keller, 2011. Intrinsic ethics regarding integrated assessment models for climate management. Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 17, no. 3 (September), pages 503-523.
An argument for teaching ethical issues found within the content of research, and an example of how to teach this based on climate management research.
Seth D. Baum, Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, and Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman, 2011. Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity? A scenario analysis. Acta Astronautica, vol. 68, no. 11-12 (June-July), pages 2114-2129.
An analysis of a broad range of possible contact scenarios in terms of their impact on humanity.
Click here to view this paper's extensive media coverage.
Seth D. Baum, Ben Goertzel, and Ted G. Goertzel, 2011. How long until human-level AI? Results from an expert assessment. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, vol. 78, no. 1 (January), pages 185-195.
Experts on artificial general intelligence provide estimates for the future of AGI.
Seth D. Baum and James E. Thatcher, 2010. Film review: Inception. Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 21, no. 1 (July), pages 62-66. pdf version
A discussion of epistemology, structure, psychoanalysis, and ethics themes in the film.
Seth D. Baum and William E. Easterling, 2010. Space-time discounting in climate change adaptation. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, vol. 15, no. 6 (August), pages 591-609.
New theory showing that costs and benefits should be discounted across space as well as time is applied to three cases of how humans adapt to climate change.
Seth D. Baum, 2010. Is humanity doomed? Insights from astrobiology. Sustainability, vol. 2, no. 2 (February), pages 591-603.
A discussion of several connections between astrobiology (life in the universe) and sustainability: limits to where and when life can exist, observations of extraterrestrials, and the fate of Earth and the universe.
Seth D. Baum, 2010. Universalist ethics in extraterrestrial encounter. Acta Astronautica, vol. 66, no. 3-4 (February-March), pages 617-623.
If humanity encounters an extraterrestrial civilization, then the outcome can depend on the ethics of each civilization.
Seth D. Baum, 2009. Film review: District 9. Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 20, no. 2 (December), pages 86-89. pdf version
A discussion of transhumanism, ethics, and astrobiology themes in the film.
Erich W. Schienke, Nancy Tuana, Donald A. Brown, Kenneth J. Davis, Klaus Keller, James S. Shortle, Michelle Stickler, and Seth D. Baum, 2009. The role of the NSF Broader Impacts Criterion in enhancing research ethics pedagogy. Social Epistemology, vol. 23, no. 3-4 (July-December), pages 317-336.
An argument for teaching ethical issues in how research impacts the rest of the world.
Seth D. Baum, 2009. Description, prescription and the choice of discount rates. Ecological Economics, vol. 69, no. 1 (15 November), pages 197-205.
An analysis of ethical judgments in descriptions of how society discounts, including which individuals are included in "society", how their discounting is described, and how the individual descriptions are aggregated.
Seth D. Baum, 2009. Cost-benefit analysis of space exploration: Some ethical considerations. Space Policy, vol. 25, no. 2 (May), pages 75-80.
Space exploration CBA raises some important ethical issues related to how costs and benefits are defined and counted, including costs and benefits to future humans and to extraterrestrials
Jacob D. Haqq-Misra and Seth D. Baum, 2009. The 'Sustainability Solution' to the Fermi Paradox. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 62, no. 2 (February), pages 47-51.
The challenges of sustainability may explain the paradox of why we have never observed an extraterrestrial civilization.
Colin Hunt and Seth Baum, 2009. The 'hidden' social costs of forestry offsets. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, vol. 14, no. 2 (February), pages 107-120.
An evaluation of carbon offsets in forestry accounting for the (commonly-neglected) amount of time it takes trees to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Seth D. Baum, 2009. Book review: Global Catastrophic Risks. Risk Analysis, vol. 29, no. 1 (January), pages 155-156.
A review of an edited volume discussing a broad range of GCRs and related issues.
Seth D. Baum, 2008. Better to exist: A reply to Benatar. Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 34, no. 12 (December), pages 875-876.
An analysis and rejection of David Benatar's argument that we should not bring new humans into existence.
Seth Baum, 2007. Beyond the Ramsey model for climate change assessments. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, vol. 2007, pages 15-21.
A critique of the Ramsey model used in the "economics" of climate change, and proposals for improved models.
Seth Baum, 2006. Response to Quality Science Teachers: Essential to America's Future. The Science Teacher, December, pages 8-9. Reprinted in Journal of College Science Teaching, vol. 36, no. 4 (January/February), 2007, pages 6-7.
A critique of NSTA President Linda Froschauer's nationalist arguments for improving science education.
Seth Baum, 2006. User and Developer Interface Improvements to a Finite Difference Time Domain Code. Masters Thesis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University.
Enhancements to an electromagnetic wave propagation simulation package making it easier to use and modify.
(Top) • Research • Commentary • Whats Up Magazine • Fiction
Seth Baum, 2026. Political organizing and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2026-16, 1 July.
Seth Baum, 2026. Evidence on democratic participation and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2026-15, 25 June.
Seth Baum, 2026. Political corruption and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2026-14, 28 May.
Seth Baum, 2026. AI risk and strategy, early 2026. GCRI Commentary 2026-13, 15 April.
Seth Baum, 2026. Concepts for advancing peace. GCRI Commentary 2026-12, 20 March.
Seth Baum, 2026. Introduction to the GCRI Symposium on World Peace. GCRI Commentary 2026-7, 20 March.
Seth Baum, 2026. The Iran war and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2026-6, 17 March.
Seth Baum, 2026. Ukraine and nuclear war, 2026. GCRI Commentary 2026-5, 28 February.
Seth Baum, 2026. Political orders and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2026-4, 2 February.
Seth Baum, 2026. The importance of statusquotastrophe—and social science research. GCRI Commentary 2026-3, 9 January.
Seth Baum, 2026. One big question about contrails and climate change. GCRI Commentary 2026-1, 4 January.
Seth Baum, 2025. Government procedure and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2025-5, 14 October.
Seth Baum, 2025. Democratic participation and global catastrophic risk. GCRI Commentary 2025-4, 30 April.
Seth Baum, 2025. Parsing AI risk in early 2025. GCRI Commentary 2025-3, 25 April.
Seth Baum, 2025. Advance world peace to address global catastrophic risk? GCRI Commentary 2025-2, 11 April.
Seth Baum, 2025. The nuclear war scenarios that lurk ahead in Ukraine. GCRI Commentary 2025-1, 4 April.
Seth Baum, 2023. Even with electric vehicles, an expanded Turnpike Extension would be bad for the environment. The Jersey Journal, 9 January.
Seth Baum, 2022. New York’s housing plans must address affordability—& climate change. City Limits, 29 December.
Seth Baum, 2022. Doing better on climate change. Effective Altruism Forum, 7 October.
Seth Baum, 2022. Early reflections and resources on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Effective Altruism Forum, 18 March.
Seth Baum, 2022. How to evaluate the risk of nuclear war. BBC Future, 10 March.
Seth Baum, and Jonas Schuett, 2021. The case for long-term corporate governance of AI. Effective Altruism Forum, 3 November.
Seth Baum, 2019. Why catastrophes can change the course of humanity. BBC Future, 9 April.
Seth Baum, 2018. The role of risk and decision analysis in global catastrophic risk reduction. GCRI Commentary 2018-1, 26 November.
Seth Baum D., 2018. Preventing an AI apocalypse. Project Syndicate, 16 May. Reprinted in The New Times (Rwanda), Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates), World Economic Forum, MarketWatch, Japan Times, Asia Times, and Médias24 (Morocco), Times of Oman, Khmer Times, Taipei Times, Dagens Perspektiv (Oslo).
Seth Baum D., 2017. Assessing global catastrophic risk. In Helen Caldicott (Editor), Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation. New York: New Press, pages 3-10.
Seth Baum, 2016. Space colonization and the meaning of life. Nautilus, December.
Seth Baum, 2016. What Trump means for global catastrophic risk. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 9 December.
Seth Baum, 2016. Should we let uploaded brains take over the world?. Scientific American Blogs, 18 October.
Seth Baum, 2016. Tackling near and far AI threats at once. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 6 October.
Seth Baum, 2015. Japan should restart more nuclear power plants. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 20 October.
Seth Baum, 2015. Antinuclear Austria should lead the way on nuclear power. Scientific American Blogs, 29 September.
Seth Baum, 2015. A picture's power to prevent. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 5 August.
Seth Baum, 2015. Breaking down the risk of nuclear deterrence failure. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 27 July.
Seth Baum and Trevor White, 2015. When robots kill. The Guardian Political Science blog, 23 June.
Seth Baum, 2015. Should nuclear devices be used to stop asteroids?. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 17 June.
Seth Baum, 2015. Is stratospheric geoengineering worth the risk?. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 5 June.
Seth Baum, 2015. The risk of nuclear winter. Public Interest Reports, vol. 68, no. 2.
Seth Baum, 2015. On winter-safe deterrence and interdisciplinary research. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, roundtable discussion The winter-safe deterrence debate, 2 April.
Seth Baum, 2015. On winter-safe deterrence and biological weapons. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, roundtable discussion The winter-safe deterrence debate, 20 March.
Seth Baum, 2015. Getting smart about global catastrophes. Medium, special section 7 Days of Genius, 16 March.
Seth Baum, 2015. Deterrence, without nuclear winter. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 9 March.
Seth Baum, 2015. What are the best ways to prevent global catastrophe?. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 26 February.
Seth Baum, 2015. Stopping killer robots and other future threats. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 22 February.
Seth Baum, 2015. Support the Austria Pledge. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 27 January.
Seth Baum, 2014. Nuclear war, the black swan we can never see. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 21 November.
Seth Baum, 2014. The lesson of Lake Toba. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 21 October.
Seth Baum, 2014. Planetary boundaries and global catastrophic risk. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 21 October.
Seth Baum, 2014. Best and worst case scenarios for Ukraine crisis: World peace and nuclear war. The Huffington Post, 7 March.
Seth Baum, 2013. Our Final Invention: Is AI the defining issue for humanity?. Scientific American Blogs, 11 October. Reprinted in Yahoo News, The Huffington Post, and Medium.
Seth Baum, 2013. Taming the gigaton gorilla: Using Syria diplomacy to help avoid U.S.-Russia nuclear war. The Huffington Post, 15 September. Reprinted in Medium.
Seth Baum, 2013. Making the universe a better place. Current Exchange/Technophilic Magazine, Spring, pages 22-23.
Seth Baum and Grant Wilson, 2013. How to create an international treaty for emerging technologies. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 21 February.
Seth Baum, 2013. When global catastrophes collide: The climate engineering double catastrophe. Scientific American Blogs, 6 February 2013. Reprinted in Yahoo News and The Huffington Post.
Seth Baum, 2013. Seven reasons for integrated emerging technologies governance. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 23 January.
Seth Baum, 2012. Hurricane Sandy hints at the perils of global catastrophe. Scientific American Blogs, 6 November 2012. Reprinted in Yahoo News and The Huffington Post.
Seth Baum, 2012. Dedicated bus corridors could help get New York moving again. The Huffington Post, 31 October.
Seth Baum, 2012. Anticipating catastrophe. FutureChallenges.org, 26 September.
Seth Baum, 2012. Backwards steps for American democracy. FutureChallenges.org, 13 September.
Seth Baum, 2012. The planet needs our help. FutureChallenges.org, 1 September.
Seth Baum, 2012. Curing aging could transform society. FutureChallenges.org, 16 May.
Seth Baum, 2012. Earth Day, conspiracy and world government. FutureChallenges.org, 23 April. Reprinted in The Huffington Post.
Seth Baum, 2012. Global disaster recovery. FutureChallenges.org, 17 April.
Seth Baum, 2012. When our technology is used against us. FutureChallenges.org, 9 April.
Seth Baum, 2012. ‘Friends’ of the environment. FutureChallenges.org, 9 April.
Seth Baum, 2011. Activist fatigue in the United States and the Arab world. FutureChallenges.org, 18 August.
Seth Baum, 2011. American democracy and global climate change. FutureChallenges.org, 18 August.
Seth Baum, 2010. Urban gentrification in the United States. FutureChallenges.org, 1 December.
Seth Baum, 2010. US 2010 elections: Bleak prospects for climate change. FutureChallenges.org, 20 October.
Jacob D. Haqq-Misra and Seth D. Baum, 2010. Where have all the aliens gone? Sustainability may explain the absence of extraterrestrials. Sky & Telescope, vol. 119, no. 3 (March), page 86.
Ben Goertzel, Seth Baum, and Ted Goertzel, 2010. How long till human-level AI? What do the experts say?. h+ Magazine, February 5.
Seth Baum, 2009. Collaboration is key to sustainability. Centre Daily Times, December 1, page A6.
Seth Baum, 2009. Senate should pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Odessa American, July 7; Asheville Citizen-Times, July 13. Different version published as Senate should pass Clean Energy and Security act. Centre Daily Times, July 18, page A6.
Seth Baum, 2009. It's time to establish a geography department. University of Rochester Campus Times, April 9, page 7.
Seth Baum, 2007. Ethics and modeling: Putting Ramsey model-based climate change assessments in perspective. ClimateEthics.org, December 22.
Seth Baum, 2007. Scatterbrains: Have no fear of grad school. University of Rochester Campus Times, November 8.
Seth Baum, 2003. Affirmative action. UR Messenger, March, page 11.
Seth Baum, 2002. Reasons to choose a vegetarian lifestyle. University of Rochester Campus Times, November 14.
Seth Baum, 2002. Form more partnerships between our city students and professionals. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 23, page 7A.
Seth Baum, 2002. Benefiting both the environment and the economy. University of Rochester Campus Times, April 4.
Seth Baum, 2001. Effective and thoughtful city planning helps everyone. University of Rochester Campus Times, November 8, page 8.
Seth Baum, 2001. Sending more food than bombs to Afghanistan. University of Rochester Campus Times, October 25, page 7.
Seth Baum, 2001. Never driven a car and don't want to. University of Rochester Campus Times, October 11, page 7.
Seth Baum, 2001. Sustained development requires contributions from all of us. University of Rochester Campus Times, September 26.
Seth Baum, 2001. Naderites learn the hard way. University of Rochester Campus Times, September 13.
Seth Baum, 2000. Two-party politics excludes innovative ideas. University of Rochester Campus Times, March 16, page 7.
Seth Baum, 1999. The dangers of reaching the 6 billion man mark. University of Rochester Campus Times, October 28, page 7.
(Top) • Research • Commentary • Whats Up Magazine • Fiction
Whats Up Magazine was a Boston street magazine I contributed to while I was a grad student at Northeastern.
Seth Baum, 2007. Beyond Infinite: A 21st Century Revolution?. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 9 no. 4 (Autumn), page 19.
Seth Baum, 2007. Alternative Meat: Lab-Grown. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 9 no. 3 (Summer), page 15.
Seth Baum, 2007. Mathematical relationships and the big nerds who have relationships with them. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 9 no. 2 (April/May), page 15.
Seth Baum, 2006. Interview with Eric Loeb of GoodWorks PAC. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 8 no. 1 (February), page 14.
Seth Baum, 2005. Moving to NYC, Chapter 3: Harold and Kumar go to Plainsboro, When Harry met Veronica. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 7 no. 11 (November/December), page 30.
Seth Baum, 2005. Recycle like it's 1999!. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 7 no. 5 (June), page ??.
Seth Baum, 2005. Big deeds with small shovels. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 7 no. 3 (March), page 26.
Seth Baum, 2005. Good bread, at last. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 7 no. 1 (January), page 9.
Seth Baum, 2004. My Dad, precinct leader. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 11 (November), page 17.
Seth Baum, 2004. Beyond voting. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 11 (November), page 17.
Seth Baum, 2004. Be counted. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 11 (November), pages 12-14.
Seth Baum, 2004. Subway of Dreams. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 9 (September), page 17.
Seth Baum, 2004. Recommended reading & viewing. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 9 (September), page 13. (see p.2)
Seth Baum, 2004. Urban housing for all. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 9 (September), pages 12-13.
Seth Baum, 2004. Keeping positive: Vendor profile: Allen Reid. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 8 (August), page 11.
Seth Baum, 2004. Becoming visible. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 7 (July), pages 14-15.
Seth Baum, 2004. The band doesn't have a name and neither does the article. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 7 (July), page 10.
Seth Baum, 2004. Tell Us The Truth: Rocking for free media and fair trade. Whats Up Magazine, vol. 6 no. 1 (January), pages 8-9.
(Top) • Research • Commentary • Whats Up Magazine • Fiction
Seth Baum, 2016. The party at the end of the world. In Tales from Spaceship Earth: Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Short Story Collection, Volume 1, Habitable Press, Seattle, p. 53-58.
