The Precipice Reading Group

Humanity stands at a precipice. Our species could survive for millions of generations—enough time to end disease, poverty, and injustice, and reach new heights of flourishing. But this vast future is at risk. With the advent of nuclear weapons, humanity entered a new age, gaining the power to destroy ourselves without the wisdom to ensure that we won’t. Since then, these dangers have only multiplied, from climate change to engineered pandemics and unaligned artificial intelligence. If we do not act fast to reach a place of safety, it may soon be too late.

In Fall 2022, Harvard-MIT X-Risk is running reading groups on The Precipice, a recently-released book about existential risk and the future of humanity by Oxford University philosopher Toby Ord, along with other supplementary materials. Our reading groups on The Precipice are open to Harvard and MIT students in every year and course of study and will last 8 weeks. Over 100 Harvard and MIT students participated in the program last year, and sign-ups are now open for the fall semester. We hope you join us in examining some of the most pressing problems of our time—and learning how to solve them—through the Precipice program.