--- title: "3 Existential Quotes By Nick Bostrom" description: "3 Existential quotes by Nick Bostrom. Plus more from Nick Bostrom and more Existential sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/832/nick-bostrom-10771_biology_the-greatest-existential-risks-over-the_1528874.jpg" --- > [The greatest existential risks over the coming decades or century arise from certain, anticipated technological breakthroughs that we might make in particular,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/the-greatest-existential-risks-over-the-coming-decades-or-century/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/832/nick-bostrom-10771_biology_the-greatest-existential-risks-over-the_1528874.jpg) > [In the next century, we will be inventing radical new technologies - machine intelligence, perhaps nanotech, great advances in synthetic biology and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/in-the-next-century-we-will-be-inventing-radical-new-technologies/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/34a/nick-bostrom-10771_biology_in-the-next-century-we-will-be-inventing_3041134.jpg) > [Our approach to existential risks cannot be one of trial-and-error. There is no opportunity to learn from errors. The reactive approach -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/our-approach-to-existential-risks-cannot-be-one-of-trial-and-error/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e5/nick-bostrom-10771_action_our-approach-to-existential-risks-cannot_3140588.jpg) ## Other authors on Existential - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b021/author-rollo-may-80838.jpg) Rollo May 18 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/rollo-may/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b016/author-lu-xun-61677.jpg) Lu Xun 16 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/lu-xun/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b010/author-friedrich-nietzsche-36363.jpg) Friedrich Nietzsche 14 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/friedrich-nietzsche/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-viktor-e-frankl-93688.jpg) Viktor E. Frankl 13 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/viktor-e-frankl/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-jean-paul-sartre-220.jpg) Jean-Paul Sartre 13 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/jean-paul-sartre/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-simone-de-beauvoir-85532.jpg) Simone de Beauvoir 12 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/simone-de-beauvoir/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b019/author-paul-tillich-74200.jpg) Paul Tillich 10 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/paul-tillich/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b009/author-ernest-becker-33772.jpg) Ernest Becker 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/ernest-becker/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b003/author-albert-camus-10482.jpg) Albert Camus 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/albert-camus/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b020/author-rajneesh-77002.jpg) Rajneesh 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/rajneesh/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-hunter-s-thompson-42712.jpg) Hunter S. Thompson 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/hunter-s-thompson/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-stephen-a-diamond-86925.jpg) Stephen A. Diamond 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/stephen-a-diamond/) ## More by Nick Bostrom > [“It now seems clear that a capacity to learn would be an integral feature of the core design of a system intended to attain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/it-now-seems-clear-that-a-capacity-to-learn-would-be-an-integral/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [The challenge presented by the prospect of superintelligence, and how we might best respond is quite possibly the most important and most daunting challenge…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/the-challenge-presented-by-the-prospect-of-superintelligence-and-how/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [For healthy adult people, the really big thing we can foresee are ways of intervening in the ageing process, either by slowing or reversing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/for-healthy-adult-people-the-really-big-thing-we-can-foresee-are-ways/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“We can think of wisdom as the ability to get the important things approximately right.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/we-can-think-of-wisdom-as-the-ability-to-get-the-important-things/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“The Google search engine is, arguably, the greatest AI system that has yet been built.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/the-google-search-engine-is-arguably-the-greatest-ai-system-that-has/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/far-from-being-the-smartest-possible-biological-species-we-are/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“If the distance between base and apex for you is eight kilometers, then to reach my dwellings would take a million light-year ascent. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/if-the-distance-between-base-and-apex-for-you-is-eight-kilometers/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [ “There is more scholarly work on the life-habits of the dung fly than on existential risks \[to humanity\].” ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/there-is-more-scholarly-work-on-the-life-habits-of-the-dung-fly-than/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“If one wished to speak provocatively, one could say that individuals created from such proofread genomes might be “more human” than anybody currently alive,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/if-one-wished-to-speak-provocatively-one-could-say-that-individuals/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [When we are headed the wrong way, the last thing we need is progress.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/when-we-are-headed-the-wrong-way-the-last-thing-we-need-is-progress/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“Lie detectors (should it prove feasible to make ones that are reliable and easy to use) could reduce the scope for deception in human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/lie-detectors-should-it-prove-feasible-to-make-ones-that-are-reliable/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“Rather, each brain develops its own idiosyncratic representations of higher-level content. Which particular neuronal assemblies are recruited to represent a particular concept depends on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/rather-each-brain-develops-its-own-idiosyncratic-representations-of/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“Consider an AI that has hedonism as its final goal, and which would therefore like to tile the universe with “hedonium” (matter organized in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/consider-an-ai-that-has-hedonism-as-its-final-goal-and-which-would/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“Utopia is the hope that the scattered fragments of good that we come across from time to time in our lives can be put…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/utopia-is-the-hope-that-the-scattered-fragments-of-good-that-we-come/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [“Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/thus-the-first-ultraintelligent-machine-is-the-last-invention-that/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existential/nick-bostrom/#itemlist", "name": "3 Existential Quotes By Nick Bostrom", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The greatest existential risks over the coming decades or century arise from certain, anticipated technological breakthroughs that we might make in particular, machine super intelligence, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. 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