Christians prepare for the Second Coming of the Lord through prayers, reading the Bible and doing acts of kindness. At the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), a research department at Oxford University in UK, 18 full-time staffers are using science and mathematics to prepare for the apocalypse that could be triggered by superintelligent computers and robots, just like the machines in "The Terminator" movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This group of researchers—composed of philosophers, biologists, mathematicians, physicists, economists and computer scientists—was formed by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2005 to study the "big-picture questions" of human life.
Bostrom's team is particularly preparing for the eventuality of a "superintelligence explosion," or the possibility of superintelligent computers exceeding human intelligence and wiping us out.
The team is particularly worried about "existential risk," or the potential of machines to eventually interfere in our lives.
Bostrom pointed out that this is possible since machines lack human beings' cultural, emotional and social intuition, making them capable of adopting dangerous methods.
"We're getting these more and more powerful technologies that we can use to have more and more wide-ranging impacts on the world and ourselves, and our level of wisdom seems to be growing more slowly. It's a bit like a child who's getting their hands on a loaded pistol—they should be playing with rattles or toy soldiers," Bostrom explained.
He added that human beings should "mature more rapidly" than machines. Some experts believe that machines more intelligent than human beings can arrive 50 years from now.
"As a species, we're giving ourselves access to technologies that should really have a higher maturity level. We don't have an option—we're going to get these technologies," Bostrom said.
Some of FHI's current staffers include former employees of big companies. For instance, 27-year-old Daniel Dewey left his job as a software engineer in Google to pursue studies on the safety of artificial intelligence at FHI.
