Why aim for the stars when the galaxies are just as easy? | Stuart Armstrong | TEDxVienna

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Science fiction suffers from both an excess of imagination and a lack of it. Expansion across the universe, when it becomes possible, could be faster and bigger than we’ve ever imagined. Given a few assumptions, the resources of our solar system alone are more than ample to begin a direct colonisation of the entire reachable universe. Here’s how we could do it.

Stuart Armstrong’s research at the Future of Humanity Institute centres on formal decision theory, general existential risk, the risks and possibilities of Artificial Intelligence, assessing expertise and predictions, and anthropic (self-locating) probability.

His Oxford D.Phil was in parabolic geometry, calculating the holonomy of projective and conformal Cartan geometries. He later transitioned into computational biochemistry, designing several new ways to rapidly compare putative bioactive molecules for virtual screening of medicinal compounds.


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