Kuhlemann, K;
(2019)
Complexity, creeping normalcy, and conceit: sexy and unsexy catastrophic risks.
Foresight
, 21
(1)
pp. 35-52.
10.1108/FS-05-2018-0047.
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Abstract
PURPOSE: This paper aims to consider few cognitive and conceptual obstacles to engagement with global catastrophic risks (GCRs). // DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper starts by considering cognitive biases that affect general thinking about GCRs, before questioning whether existential risks really are dramatically more pressing than other GCRs. It then sets out a novel typology of GCRs – sexy vs unsexy risks – before considering a particularly unsexy risk, overpopulation. // FINDINGS: It is proposed that many risks commonly regarded as existential are “sexy” risks, while certain other GCRs are comparatively “unsexy.” In addition, it is suggested that a combination of complexity, cognitive biases and a hubris-laden failure of imagination leads us to neglect the most unsexy and pervasive of all GCRs: human overpopulation. The paper concludes with a tentative conceptualisation of overpopulation as a pattern of risking. // ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper proposes and conceptualises two new concepts, sexy and unsexy catastrophic risks, as well as a new conceptualisation of overpopulation as a pattern of risking.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Complexity, creeping normalcy, and conceit: sexy and unsexy catastrophic risks |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1108/FS-05-2018-0047 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-05-2018-0047 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Environmental politics, Risk assessment, Cognitive biases, Existential risk, Global catastrophic risks, Overpopulation |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10060670 |
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