ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comprehensive set of existential risks, which are arranged into a nine-component framework. The framework is organized around when the risks may come into play, how preventable the risks may be, and the essential nature of the risk. Though factors outside of human control are often cited, most of these pronouncements and beliefs suggest that the risk of human extinction is primarily caused by human behavior. The class of existential risks is primarily found in coupled human–natural systems. Many human behaviors threaten human reproduction. At some point, any one of these risks or combinations of risks could result in the human race simply dying out. Extinction through the gradual obliteration of humanness is wholly preventable. One of the unintended consequences of emerging technologies has with current technologies such as nuclear power and the combustion engine is human extinction.
