Could science destroy the world? These scholars want to save us from a modern-day Frankenstein

Hello.
Remember me?
No, I'm not Frankenstein.
Everyone’s always mixing me up
with the scientist who created me:
Victor Frankenstein.
But, he never bothered to give me a name.
In fact, he never cared much for me.
I asked him for one thing: a female companion.
A bride.
But he refused.
He feared she and I would create a new race
that would drive humans to extinction.
He called me a demon, a monster.
In the 21st century, there are many
potential Dr. Frankensteins and they might
create their own monsters --or what today’s
scientists call “existential risks.”
In the past, humans didn't have to worry
about science that could end humanity itself.
Then came July 16, 1945 when people detonated
the first atom bomb.
Some scientists feared that this test
might set off a chain-reaction that would
ignite the atmosphere.
Today, we know that there was no way
this could have happened.
But that was the first human-made
existential risk.
And from it grew a weapons stockpile that brought
a real dire threat: nuclear holocaust.
There are now three academic centers dedicated
to studying existential risks.
The researchers there argue that there are
plenty of new existential risks on the horizon that
could be brought about either through error or terror:
New, potent viruses made in the lab
could escape and kill billions of people.
Artificial intelligence tasked with say solving
a mathematical problem, could pursue that task
so single-mindedly that, along the way,
it creates an environment fatal to humans,
simply because it hasn’t been
programmed to recognize this.
-An army of nanobots, tiny self-replicating robots,
could destroy the biosphere.
Some think these scenarios are too unlikely
to deserve study and that
humans should concentrate on combatting
climate change and avoiding nuclear war.
But others argue that this is a new category of risk
and the old approaches of trial-and-error
won't work when it comes to averting
the end of the world.
So new strategies are needed.
But for the moment, most scientists are still stuck
on the first part of the work: Coming up with scenarios
that present humanity with existential risks.
It’s the kind of work where scientists
have few examples.
Except one, towering figure, of course: My real creator...
Mary Shelley.
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Could science destroy the world? These scholars want to save us from a modern-day Frankenstein

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