Nick Bostrom
born 1973 · Helsingborg, Sweden; Oxford
The philosopher behind the simulation argument and much of the modern study of existential risk and superintelligent AI.
Key ideas
Bostrom's 2003 paper argued that at least one of three claims is true: almost no civilisations reach the technology to run detailed simulations of their ancestors; almost none that reach it choose to; or we are almost certainly living in a simulation. The simulation argument does not claim we are simulated, only that the three options are hard to escape.
He has worked extensively on anthropic reasoning, on the ethics of human enhancement, and on catastrophic risks to humanity's long-term future. His book Superintelligence (2014) argued that machines much smarter than humans could be extremely dangerous unless their goals are carefully aligned with ours, and helped bring that concern into the mainstream.
His 2009 paper on Pascal's mugging, a problem first raised informally by Eliezer Yudkowsky, gave it its best-known form.
Life, briefly
Bostrom studied in Sweden and London and took his doctorate at the London School of Economics. He was the founding director of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute from 2005 until it closed in 2024.
Major works
- Anthropic Bias (2002)
- Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? (2003)
- Pascal's Mugging (2009)
- Superintelligence (2014)
- Deep Utopia (2024)
Appears in
Further reading
- WikipediaNick Bostrom