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Foresight Institute - Wikipedia
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The Foresight Institute is a pioneering nonprofit founded in 1986 that promotes safe development of nanotechnology and emerging technologies including AGI, relevant to AI safety through its focus on existential risk reduction and 'existential hope' frameworks.
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Summary
The Foresight Institute is an American nonprofit research organization founded in 1986 by Christine Peterson, K. Eric Drexler, and James C. Bennett to promote beneficial development of nanotechnology and emerging technologies. It runs programs on molecular machines, biotech, and AI safety, and advances the concept of 'existential hope' alongside existential risk reduction. The institute hosts fellowships, conferences, and open-source educational content.
Key Points
- •Founded in 1986, Foresight Institute promotes safe development of nanotechnology, AGI, biotech, and longevity research.
- •Runs an 'existential hope' program based on Toby Ord and Owen Cotton-Barratt's 2015 framework for positive large-scale futures.
- •Hosts fellowship programs, annual Vision Weekend conferences, and an open-source podcast on grand futures.
- •Created the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology in 1993 to fund and recognize nanotechnology developers.
- •Strategy focuses on building communities that promote beneficial technology use while reducing misuse and accidents.
1 FactBase fact citing this source
| Entity | Property | Value | As Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foresight Institute | Founded Date | 1986 | — |
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Foresight Institute - Wikipedia
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American research non-profit organization
This article is about the nanotechnology policy organization. For the similar-sounding craniofacial research institute, see The Forsyth Institute . Foresight Institute Formation 1986 ; 40 years ago  ( 1986 ) Type Nonprofit research institute Purpose Research into nanotechnology and the existential risk Key people Eric Drexler , Christine Peterson Website foresight .org /our-history /
The Foresight Institute (Foresight) is an American research nonprofit organization that promotes the development of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies, such as safe AGI , biotech and longevity . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Foresight runs four cross-disciplinary program tracks to research, advance, and govern maturing technologies for the long-term benefit of life and the biosphere: Molecular machines nanotechnology for building better materials, biotechnology for health extension, and computer science and crypto commerce for intelligent global cooperation. [ 4 ]
History
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The Foresight Institute was founded in 1986 by Christine Peterson , [ 5 ] K. Eric Drexler , and James C. Bennett to support the development of nanotechnology. Many of the institute's initial members came to it from the L5 Society , who were hoping to form a smaller group more focused on nanotechnology. [ 6 ] In 1991, the Foresight Institute created two suborganizations with funding from tech entrepreneur Mitch Kapor ; the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing and the Center for Constitutional Issues in Technology. [ 6 ] In the 1990s, the Foresight Institute launched several initiatives to provide funding to developers of nanotechnology. [ 7 ] In 1993, it created the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology , named after physicist Richard Feynman . [ 8 ] In May 2005, the Foresight Institute changed its name to "Foresight Nanotech Institute", [ 9 ] though it reverted to its original name in June 2009.
In 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic , the institute moved its programs online.
Organization
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Foresight also runs a program on "existential hope", [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] pushing forward the concept coined by Toby Ord and Owen Cotton-Barratt in their 2015 paper "Existential risk and Existential hope: Definitions", in which they wrote
we want to be able to refer to the chance of an existential eucatastrophe; upside risk on a large scale. We could call such a chance an existential hope .   ... Some people are trying to identify and avert specific threats to our future – reducing existential risk. Others are trying to steer us towards a world where we are robustly
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