Nick Bostrom | Academic Influence

Why Is Nick Bostrom Influential?

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By Erik J. Larson, PhD

Areas of Specialization: Superintelligence, Human Enhancement Ethics
Nick Bostrom is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at University of Oxford, the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, and a philosopher at Oxford. He has earned a B.A. from the University of Gothenburg, an M.A. from Stockholm University, an M.Sc. from King’s College of London, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

Bostrom is best known for his work on superintelligence, human enhancement ethics, the anthropic principle and existential risk. He has also written two major books: Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Superintelligence was particularly well-received, honored as a New York Times bestseller list and promoted by top minds such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

Ranked as among the top thinkers in the world, Bostrom has warned of the dangers of superintelligence, which he feels could become an extreme threat within a remarkably short time after development. In his view, a superintelligence could use agent-like behavior to infiltrate existing systems and do so without arousing suspicions.

Bostrom and other major thinkers in the field contributed to a letter with 23 principles of AI safety. These guidelines continue to provide guardrails for the development of artificial intelligence.

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Featured in Top Influential Computer Scientists Today

According to Wikipedia, Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology, and is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. In 2009 and 2015, he was included in Foreign Policys Top 100 Global Thinkers list.

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Nick Bostrom's Published Works

Number of citations in a given year to any of this author's works

Total number of citations to an author for the works they published in a given year. This highlights publication of the most important work(s) by the author

Published Papers

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) (612)
Cognitive Enhancement: Methods, Ethics, Regulatory Challenges (2009) (472)
A history of transhumanist thought (2005) (434)
Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence: A Survey of Expert Opinion (2013) (394)
Are We Living in a Computer Simulation (2003) (386)
Existential risks: analyzing human extinction scenarios and related hazards (2002) (347)
Global Catastrophic Risks (2008) (341)
In defense of posthuman dignity. (2005) (325)
Existential Risk Prevention as Global Priority (2013) (313)
Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002) (289)
Human Genetic Enhancements: A Transhumanist Perspective (2020) (252)
ARE YOU LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION? (2001) (240)
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2014) (204)
The Reversal Test: Eliminating Status Quo Bias in Applied Ethics* (2006) (183)
Why I Want to be a Posthuman when I Grow Up (2013) (173)
Ethical issues in human enhancement (2007) (164)
Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development (2003) (147)
The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents (2012) (137)
Converging Cognitive Enhancements (2006) (108)
The fable of the dragon tyrant (2005) (106)
The Future of Humanity (2009) (106)
Thinking Inside the Box: Controlling and Using an Oracle AI (2012) (103)
Racing to the precipice: a model of artificial intelligence development (2016) (97)
Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence (2020) (93)
Strategic Implications of Openness in AI Development (2017) (91)
The Vulnerable World Hypothesis (2019) (75)
Human Enhancement Ethics: The State of the Debate (2009) (68)
The Future of Human Evolution (2001) (63)
SMART POLICY: COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST (2009) (63)
DIGNITY AND ENHANCEMENT (2009) (60)
Sleeping Beauty and Self-location: A Hybrid Model (2007) (58)
Letter from Utopia (2008) (55)
INFORMATION HAZARDS: A TYPOLOGY OF POTENTIAL HARMS FROM KNOWLEDGE (2011) (54)
Anthropic Shadow: Observation Selection Effects and Human Extinction Risks (2010) (52)
What is a Singleton (2006) (47)
Technological revolutions: ethics and policy in the dark (2007) (46)
The Wisdom of Nature: An Evolutionary Heuristic for Human Enhancement (2017) (45)
The Time-Dependent Permeability Damage Caused by Fracture Fluid (2014) (44)
Infinite Ethics (2012) (43)
When machines outsmart humans (2003) (43)
Introduction—The Transhumanist FAQ: A General Introduction (2014) (42)
Future progress in artificial intelligence: a poll among experts (2014) (35)
Pascal's mugging (2009) (34)
Astrophysics: Is a doomsday catastrophe likely? (2005) (32)
Whole Brain Emulation (2008) (32)
The Doomsday Argument Adam & Eve, UN++, and Quantum Joe (2001) (31)
Drugs can be used to treat more than disease (2008) (30)
Embryo Selection for Cognitive Enhancement: Curiosity or Game-changer? (2014) (29)
The doomsday argument is alive and kicking (1999) (29)
Self-Locating Belief in Big Worlds: Cosmology’s Missing Link to Observation (2002) (27)
The Doomsday Argument and the Self–Indication Assumption: Reply to Olum (2003) (27)
Quantity of experience: brain-duplication and degrees of consciousness (2006) (27)
Comprar Human Enhancement | Julian Savulescu | 9780199299720 | Oxford University Press (2009) (27)
WHY WE NEED FRIENDLY AI (2013) (23)
The Simulation Argument: Reply to Weatherson (2005) (23)
The Unilateralist’s Curse and the Case for a Principle of Conformity (2016) (21)
How Hard is Artificial Intelligence? Evolutionary Arguments and Selection Effects (2012) (20)
Cosmological Constant and the Final Anthropic Hypothesis (1999) (20)
The Simulation Argument: some explanations (2009) (17)
A patch for the Simulation Argument (2011) (17)
Observational selection effects and probability (2000) (16)
Human enhancement : ethical issues in human enhancement (2007) (16)
Observer-Relative Chances In Anthropic Reasoning? (2000) (13)
What is Transhumanism ? (2014) (12)
Cognitive Enhancement : A Review of Technology (2006) (12)
How Unlikely is a Doomsday Catastrophe (2005) (12)
A Critical Discussion of Vinge's Singularity Concept (2013) (10)
Policy Desiderata in the Development of Machine (2016) (10)
Public Policy and Superintelligent AI: A Vector Field APproach (2018) (9)
The meta-Newcomb problem (2001) (9)
The Mysteries of Self-Locating Belief and Anthropic Reasoning (2003) (9)
Hail Mary, Value Porosity, and Utility Diversication (2014) (9)
The Misnomer of Transhumanism as Directed Evolution (2011) (8)
Sharing the World with Digital Minds (2021) (8)
Death and Anti-Death, Volume 2: Two Hundred Years After Kant, Fifty Years After Turing (2004) (8)
Observation selection theory and cosmological fine-tuning (2007) (7)
TRANSHUMANIST VALUES NICK BOSTROM (2005) (7)
Public Policy and Superintelligent AI (2020) (7)
DINOSAURS, DODOS, HUMANS? (2009) (6)
The doomsday argument (2008) (6)
The Control Problem. Excerpts from Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2016) (5)
Recent Developments in the Ethics, Science, and Politics of Life (2005) (5)
Recognizing the Diversity of Cognitive Enhancements (2020) (5)
Are You in a Computer Simulation (2016) (4)
A short history of transhumanist thought (2006) (4)
Sleeping Beauty: A Synthesis of Views (2006) (3)
Get ready for the dawn of superintelligence (2014) (3)
Disagreement as Self-Deception About Meta-Rationality (2002) (3)
Taking intelligent machines seriously: reply to my critics (2003) (3)
Are Cosmological Theories Compatible with All Possible Evidence: A Missing Methodological Link (2002) (2)
The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents (2012) (2)
Beyond the Doomsday Argument : Reply to Sowers and Further Remarks (2002) (1)
EXISTENTIAL RISKS FAQ (2013) (1)
The simulation argument (2010) (1)
The Infinitarian Challenge to Aggregative Ethics (1)
Moralist, meet scientist (2008) (1)
A ÉTICA DA INTELIGÊNCIA ARTIFICIAL (2012) (1)
Who's who in the singularity (2008) (1)
The Future of Humankind (2005) (1)
Sharing the World with Utility Monsters: AI with Moral Status (0)
The Evolutionary Optimality Challenge (2021) (0)
Could I be in a “matrix” or computer simulation? (2009) (0)
Book Reviews-Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2004) (0)
UNA HISTORIA DEL PENSAMIENTO TRANSHUMANISTA A HISTORY OF A TRANSHUMANIST THOUGHT (2011) (0)
10. Joseph Raz, The Practice of Value Joseph Raz, The Practice of Value (pp. 805-809) (2006) (0)
Neoliberalising Bioethics: Bias, Enhancement and Economistic Ethics (2009) (0)
Sharing the World with Digital Minds1 (2021) (0)
Base Camp for Mt. Ethics 1 (2022) (0)
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Taking Superintelligence Seriously (2015) (0)
SIAMESE NETWORK BASED ONE-SHOT LEARNING FOR PULSE AND SIGNAL IDENTIFICATION APPLICATIONS (2021) (0)
Public Policy and Superintelligent AI : A Vector Field Approach 1 ( 2018 ) version 4 . 3 ( first version : 2016 ) (2018) (0)
A P ATCH FOR THE S IMULATION A RGUMENT (2011) (0)
Racing to the precipice: a model of artificial intelligence development (2015) (0)
Resources on Existential Risk General Blockinscholarly Blockindiscussion Blockinof Blockinexistential Blockinrisk (0)
The Epistemological Mystique of Self-Locating Belief (2009) (0)
"Aptitude Tests: Conception (1994) (0)
Material to “ How Unlikely is a Doomsday Catastrophe ? ” (2007) (0)
IntroductionâThe Transhumanist FAQ (2014) (0)
The New Eugenics of Transhumanism: A Feminist Assessment by Nikila Lakshmanan, Paralegal Abstract (2018) (0)
Existential Risk Prevention as Global Priority Nick Bostrom (2013) (0)
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Ethics in Machine Learning and Other Domain-Specific AI Algorithms (2013) (0)
Nick Bostrom & Julian Savulescu, - PhilPapers (2009) (0)
Base Camp for Mt. Ethics ∗ (2022) (0)
Many Thanks to Bioethics Reviewers. (2015) (0)
Systemic Risk of Modelling (2014) (0)
REV_ISS_WEB_GPOL_12403_8-2 135..148 (2019) (0)
Nick Bostrom on the Status Quo Bias (2013) (0)
Propositions Concerning Digital Minds and Society (2022) (0)
Thinking Inside the Box: Controlling and Using an Oracle AI (2012) (0)
05 12 20 4 v 2 2 1 D ec 2 00 5 How Unlikely is a Doomsday Catastrophe ? (2007) (0)
FREE SUPERINTELLIGENCE: PATHS, DANGERS, STRATEGIES PDF (2021) (0)
Reasons for doubting design: Response to Swinburne (2003) (0)

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Nick Bostrom is most known for their academic work in the field of philosophy. They are also known for their academic work in the fields of

Nick Bostrom has made the following academic contributions:

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

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