Lifeboat Foundation

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit organization in Reno, Nevada , dedicated to the prevention of global catastrophic risk . [1] [2] Technology journalist Ashlee Vance describes Lifeboat as “a nonprofit that seeks to protect people from some seriously catastrophic technology-related events”. [3]

Organization

Lifeboat was founded by the online dating service entrepreneur [4] Eric Klien, who continues to run as president and chairman of the board of directors. [5] Lifeboat is run out of Klien’s home in Minden, Nevada , suburb of Reno . The organization has raised over $ 500,000 in total donations from individuals and corporate matching funds programs, most of which went to “supporting conferences and publishing papers”. [6] Writer and advisory board member Sonia Arrison describes the group as “basically a web site that raises money for various things”. [3]

In 2007, the Lifeboat Foundation absorbed an organization called the “Alliance to Rescue Civilization”, which aims to establish a disaster-proof record of human civilization on the Moon. [7]

Lifeboat donated to money by accepting donations in Bitcoin , a cryptocurrency . [8] According to Fast Company , Lifeboat Raised $ 72,000 in Bitcoin Donations and Pledges, and sought to use Cypriot financial crisis . [9] Lifeboat aims to use some of the raised funds Bitcoin-related bugs. [10]

Activities

According to Fast Company , Lifeboat runs a number of “programs” to protect Earth against threats such as an asteroid impact , gray goo from molecular nanotechnology , and unfriendly artificial general intelligence . [11] Lifeboat maintains a list of “dozens and dozens” of catastrophic threats – including the eventual burnout of the Sun – divided into four main categories of “calamities”, “collapse”, “dominium”, and “betrayal”. [12] Journalist Ashlee Vance notes that it’s “unclear how far along any of these projects is”. [6]

The Lifeboat Foundation also publishes books, such as “Visions of the Future,” [13] an anthology of futurist and science fiction writing reviewed in the Financial Times . [14]

Advisory boards

The Lifeboat Foundation is notable for its extremely broad set of advisory boards , comprising thousands of scientists, businessmen, and other individuals across dozens of separate disciplines. [15] Owing to their size, the Lifeboat boards meet online, rather than in person. [3] The boards contain a number of Nobel prizewinners , [15] MacArthur genius grant fellows, [16] [17] [18] including Mathematica founder Stephen Wolfram , [11] anti-Islamist political activist Pamela Geller , [19] ]and secretly hosted two secret agents identified in 2010 as part of the Illegals Program . [20]

References

  1. Jump up^ Bilton, Nick (May 20, 2015). “Ava of ‘Ex Machina’ Is Just Sci-Fi (for Now)” . The New York Times . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  2. Jump up^ Navrozov, Lev (June 29, 2006). Eric Klien’s Lifeboat Foundation . Newsmax . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  3. ^ Jump up to:Vance c , Ashlee (July 20, 2010). “The Lifeboat Foundation: Battling Asteroids, Nanobots and AI” . The New York Times . Retrieved 5 April2016 .
  4. Jump up^ Rainey, Sarah (February 11, 2015). “This ‘King of Love’ runs the world’s largest dating agency” . Business Insider . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  5. Jump up^ Klien, Eric. “Eric Klien” . Lifeboat Foundation . Lifeboat Foundation . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  6. ^ Jump up to:b Vance, Ashlee (December 15, 2011). “Guardians of the Apocalypse” . Bloomberg Businessweek . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  7. Jump up^ Burrows, William E. (February 2, 2007). “Colonize the Moon” . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  8. Jump up^ Hajdarbegovic, Nermin (August 18, 2014). “Safello Launches Free Bitcoin Fundraising Service for Charities” . CoinDesk . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  9. Jump up^ Ungerleider, Neal (April 2, 2013). “Funding A Non-Profit With … Bitcoins?”. Fast Company . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  10. Jump up^ Hicks, Jennifer (August 17, 2014). “Safello Enables Charitable Donations With Bitcoins” . Forbes Magazine . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  11. ^ Jump up to:b Ungerleider, Neal (November 29, 2011). “How Stephen Wolfram Is Preparing For The Singularity” . Fast Company . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  12. Jump up^ Brin, David (June 17, 2012). “How will the world end?” . Salon . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  13. Jump up^ Bentham, Harry J. (March 31, 2016). “Book Review: Visions of the Future (2015)” . H + Magazine . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  14. Jump up^ Cave, Stephen (January 8, 2016). “Is predicting the future futile or necessary?” . Financial Times . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  15. ^ Jump up to:b “Lifeboat Foundation Advisory Boards” . Lifeboat Foundation . Lifeboat Foundation . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .
  16. Jump up^ “Stuart Alan Kauffman – MacArthur Foundation” . www.macfound.org . Retrieved 2017-05-18 .
  17. Jump up^ “Geerat J. Vermeij – MacArthur Foundation” . www.macfound.org . Retrieved 2017-05-18 .
  18. Jump up^ “Richard M. Stallman – MacArthur Foundation” . www.macfound.org . Retrieved 2017-05-18 .
  19. Jump up^ Bentham, Harry J. (March 12, 2015). “Islamophobia: does Pamela Geller insult the Lifeboat Foundation’s credibility?” . Beliefnet . Retrieved 5 April2016 .
  20. Jump up^ “Profile: Russian agents’ all-American lives” . BBC News . July 8, 2010 . Retrieved 5 April 2016 .

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