Davos: X Marks the Unknown

Panel on emerging risks, "X-Factors: Preparing for the Unknown." Left to right, Phillip Campbell, editor of Nature; Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Ireland; Tan Chorh-Chuan, president, National University of Singapore; Tim Palmer, co-director, Programme on Modelling and Predicting Climate, Oxford University; and Edward Boyden, associate professor, Media Lab and McGovern Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Credit: Mariette DiChristina

Earlier this month, the World Economic Forum published its annual report on global risks, ?Global Risks 2013: Eighth Edition.? At the 2013 WEF meeting at Davos, a session focused on emerging threats, called ?X Factors: Preparing for the Unknown.? My colleague Philip Campbell, the editor in chief of Nature, and his colleague editors, identified these new risks, which are named in a chapter in the report. (Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group.)

Among the topics we discussed were: dealing with the costs of the great demographic shift, as the world ages; the possibility of runaway climate change (as well as rogue geoengineering experiments that might be conducted address it); a human race where some of us have significant cognitive enhancement; and how our species will be affected if we ever do encounter extraterrestrial life.

I was the rapporteur, or official summary writer, you can find my blog about the discussion that I wrote for the WEF here.

In the February 2013 issue of Scientific American, you can see a terrific informational graphic about the report?s findings in the monthly Graphic Science, ?The Global Risks That Most Worry World Economic Forum Experts?; you can also see an interactive version here.

As a last note, we have another WEF-related essay in the February issue. ?Imagine an Internet where unseen hands curate your entire experience,? writes Michael Fertik, founder and CEO of Reputation.com, which is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet, to open his essay on a ?A Tale of Two Internets.?

Map of discussion themes about X Factors. Credit: Mariette DiChristina

?

?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=424eb99deb5b77387bac3f1da9da5223

john scott jimmie johnson juan pablo montoya crash chardon high school shooting mark martin cleveland news daytona race