Dr Anders Sandberg
About
Anders Sandberg's research centres on estimating the capabilities and underlying science of future technologies, methods of reasoning about long-term futures, existential and global catastrophic risk, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), as well as societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement.
Topics of particular interest include management of systemic risk, reasoning under uncertainty, enhancement of cognition, neuroethics and public policy. He has worked on this within the EU project ENHANCE, where he was also responsible for public outreach and online presence, and the ERC UnPredict project.
Besides scientific publications in neuroscience, ethics and future studies he has also participated in the public debate about human enhancement, existential risk and SETI internationally.
(Image credit: David Fisher)
Expertise
- The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)
- Human enhancement
- Neuroethics
- Global catastrophic risks
- Future studies
- Computational neuroscience
Selected publications
- The timing of evolutionary transitions suggests intelligent life is rare. Snyder-Beattie, A. E., Sandberg, A., Drexler, K. E., & Bonsall, M. B. Astrobiology, 21(3), 265-278 (2021)
- A safe governance space for humanity: Necessary conditions for the governance of global catastrophic risks. Fisher, L., & Sandberg, A. Global Policy, forthcoming (2021)
- Defence in depth against human extinction: prevention, response, resilience, and why they all matter. Cotton‐Barratt, O., Daniel, M., & Sandberg, A. Global Policy, 11(3), 271-282 (2020)
- "Long-term trajectories of human civilization" Baum, S.D., Armstrong, S., Ekenstedt, T., Häggström, O., Hanson, R., Kuhlemann, K., Maas, M.M., Miller, J.D., Salmela, M., Sandberg, A., et al. Foresight, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 53-83 (2019)
- Dissolving the Fermi paradox. Sandberg, A., Drexler, E., & Ord, T. arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.02404 (2018)
- Euthanasia and cryothanasia. Minerva, F., & Sandberg, A. Bioethics, 31(7), 526-533 (2017)
- Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox. Armstrong, S., & Sandberg, A. Acta Astronautica, 89, 1-13 (2013)
- Cognitive enhancement: methods, ethics, regulatory challenges. Bostrom, N., & Sandberg, A. Science and engineering ethics, 15(3), 311-341.(2009)
- Whole Brain Emulation. Bostrom, N. & Sandberg, A. FHI technical report (2008)
Media experience
Dr Sandberg has extensive media experience, both in print and broadcast media.
Recent media work
- Cryonics debate: 'Many scientists are afraid to hurt their careers'
- Is a massive alien megastructure really blocking light from a faraway star?
- Greece crisis: what are the effects of sleep deprivation on decision-making?
- Monkey 'brain net' raises prospect of human brain-to-brain connection
- Brain upgrade? No problem, if you have the cash. Welcome to the human league
- Scientists one step closer to manipulating bad memories