science

Lifeboat Foundation

Lifeboat Foundation is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lifeboat Foundation rather than just read about it. In short: The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Gardnerville, Nevada, dedicated to the prevention of global catastrophic risk. Technology journalist Ashlee Vance describes Lifeboat as "a nonprofit that seeks to protect people from some seriously catastrophic technology-related events".

Key takeaways

Lifeboat Foundation belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lifeboat Foundation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lifeboat Foundation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Gardnerville, Nevada, dedicated to the prevention of global catastrophic risk. Technology journalist Ashlee Vance describes Lifeboat as "a nonprofit that seeks to protect people from some seriously catastrophic technology-related events". Prominent scholars from Lifeboat Foundation's Advisory Board includes 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature Wole Soyinka, 1993 Nobel Laureate in Medicine Richard J. Roberts, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Daniel Kahneman, and 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Eric Maskin. In 2007, founder Eric Klien guest-blogged on Pamela Geller's "Atlas Shrugs" blog, describing the foundation's purpose as being to "develop enough resources" to save "at least SOME people" from what he called a "Religion of Science" that, because of "the Law of Accelerating Returns," "will soon go from a religion with the potential to commit mass human sacrifice to one that DOES have such a potential." Asserting that "[n]o [extraterrestrial] civilization has survived the Religion of Science so far," Klien went on to argue that the Leslie-Carter Doomsday argument leads to the conclusion that Earth must currently host the most technologically advanced civilization that humanity can possibly know about. Klien concluded his essay with a call to develop "self-sustaining colonies in space and elsewhere", and with a summary of his strategy for financing such safe harbors:

I have developed Lifeboat Foundation with a Trojan Horse meme that tries to wrap our goals in the Religion of Science memes. For example our mission statement begins with "The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements". By wrapping our meme with a Religion of Science coating, I hope to develop enough resources that we can make sure that unlike every civilization so far, we can have at least SOME people survive this dangerous religion.

Organization Lifeboat was founded by online dating service entrepreneur Eric Klien, who continues to run Lifeboat as president and chairman of the board of directors. 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". Writer and advisory board member Sonia Arrison describes the group as "basically a Website, that raises money for various things". In 2007, the Lifeboat Foundation absorbed an organization called the "Alliance to Rescue Civilization", which aimed to establish a disaster-proof record of human civilization on the Moon. Lifeboat has tried to raise more money by accepting donations in Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency. According to Fast Company, Lifeboat raised $72,000 in Bitcoin donations and pledges, and sought to use Bitcoin to protect itself against events such as the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis. The Board of Directors includes Eric Klien, Carl Martinez, Philippe van Nedervelde, Chris K. Haley, Sergio Tarrero.

Activities According to Fast Company, Lifeboat runs a number of "programs" to protect Earth against threats such as an asteroid impact, grey goo from molecular nanotechnology, and unfriendly artificial general intelligence. 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". Journalist Ashlee Vance notes that it's "unclear how far along any of these projects is". The Lifeboat Foundation also publishes books, such as Visions of the Future, an anthology of futurist and science fiction writing reviewed in the Financial Times. Lifeboat Foundation presented the “Lifeboat to the Stars” award at the Campbell Conference. This award honored the best work of science fiction of any length published in the previous two years contributing to an understanding of the benefits, means, and difficulties of interstellar travel. Lifeboat Foundation also funded the launch of high altitude experiments for Teachers in Space.

Advisory Boards The Lifeboat Foundation maintains several advisory boards consisting of more than 3000 scientists, futurists, and public figures. These boards are organized by "existential risk" categories. According to the organization, they function as a think tank to develop strategies for safeguarding humanity. Notable members of the foundation's advisory boards have included:

Nobel Laureates: Richard J. Roberts (Medicine), Eric Maskin (Economics), and Wole Soyinka (Literature). Science and Technology: Jürgen Schmidhuber, Stephen Wolfram, Lee Cronin, Joscha Bach, Stuart Kauffman, Ray Kurzweil, Seth Shostak, Jill Tarter, Aubrey de Grey, Mustafa Suleyman, Richard Stallman, and Jaan Tallinn. Philosophy and Ethics: Nick Bostrom, Max More, Peter Singer and David Pearce. Public Figures and Authors: Buzz Aldrin, Carolyn Porco, Edward James Olmos, Robert J. Sawyer, and Douglas Rushkoff.

Guardian Award The Lifeboat Foundation awards the Guardian Award every year to a leading scientist who has contributed most to the saving of humanity from existential risks. Recent award recipients include Steve Mann (2024), Geoffrey Hinton (2023), and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (2022).

References

External links Lifeboat Foundation website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lifeboat Foundation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lifeboat Foundation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lifeboat Foundation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lifeboat Foundation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lifeboat Foundation

In research: Lifeboat Foundation appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lifeboat Foundation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lifeboat Foundation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Artificial intelligence associations, Existential risk organizations, Non-profit organizations based in Nevada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lifeboat Foundation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lifeboat Foundation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lifeboat Foundation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lifeboat Foundation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lifeboat Foundation in simple terms?

Why does Lifeboat Foundation matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lifeboat Foundation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lifeboat Foundation.