London, UK - 5 August 2007, 19:13 GMT

Dear ATCA Colleagues

[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

We are grateful to:

. Prof Jonathan Moreno, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, for "Addressing the Global Risk of Emerging Technologies;"
. Dr C Ben Mitchell, based in Chicago, Illinois, USA for "Re-engineering the Human Species, Eco-System and Probabilities of Risk;"
. Prof Nigel M de S Cameron, based in Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, DC, USA, for "Mitigating Unforeseen Risk by enabling Socratic Dialogue (ATCA & C-PET);"
. Dr Thierry Malleret based in Geneva, Switzerland, for "Decline of 'Ceteris Paribus' and the Growing Power of Networks like ATCA for Early Warning;"
. John Petersen, based in Washington, DC, and Arlington, Virginia, USA for "Impact Factor of Wild Cards or Black Swans on Humanity;"
. Prof Prabhu Guptara, based in Wolfsberg, Switzerland, for "ATCA's role in addressing New Technologies' Black Swans and C-PET;"
. Prof Nigel M de S Cameron, based in Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, DC, for "The Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies (C-PET);"
. John Petersen, based in Washington, DC, and Arlington, Virginia, for "Solar Storms, Climate, Consciousness and Transition;"
. The Lord Howell of Guildford, based at The Palace of Westminster, London, for "Out of the Energy Labyrinth;"
. John Elkington based in London, UK, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, for "Diamonds, Clubs, Spades and Hearts;"
. Dr Thierry Malleret based in Geneva, Switzerland, for "The Lesson of Humility in dealing with Black Swans;"
. Andrew Leung based in London, UK, and frequent visitor to China, for "The China Black Swans;" and
. Prof Jean-Pierre Lehmann based in Ouchy and IMD Lausanne, Switzerland, for "Integrating The Black Swan in Corporate Global Trends Analysis;"

in response to the ATCA presentation, "Low Probability High Impact and Black Swan Events -- Considerations for Future Scenarios -- The Opportunity and Risk of Asymmetric Globalisation."

Prof Jonathan D Moreno is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor and Professor of Medical Ethics and of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies and serves on numerous National Academies committees. He co-chaired the Committee on Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. He has served as a senior staff member for two presidential advisory committees and has given invited testimony for both Houses of Congress. Prof Moreno is an advisor to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and GlaxoSmithKline. He writes:

Dear DK and Colleagues

Re: Addressing the Global Risk of Emerging Technologies

It is disconcerting, and quite possibly dangerous, that the world's most powerful country lacks a non-partisan, evidence-based research centre in its national capital that focuses on the threats and opportunities associated with emerging technologies.

Professor Guptara clearly understands this problem. As some distinguished ATCA contributors have observed, risk management is now a global challenge. Considering the international dissemination of intellectual and material resources that can project both enormous destructive and constructive power, only an organization that attracts the most energetic and far-seeing analysts from various philosophical and political commitments can hope to develop guidance for a peaceful and rational consensus with the broadest possible appeal.

Jonathan Moreno

Prof Jonathan Moreno is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, and a Visiting Professor of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia. Prof Moreno is also a Faculty Affiliate of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the New York Academy of Medicine. He is a Past President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. His most recent book is Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense (2006). From 1998 to 2006 Prof Moreno held the Emily Davie and Joseph S Kornfeld Chair in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia.
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Dr C Ben Mitchell is Director of the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity in suburban Chicago and teaches Bioethics & Contemporary culture at Trinity International University. He received his doctorate in philosophy with a concentration in medical ethics from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His dissertation focused on the ethical issues in patenting human life. He writes:

Dear DK and Colleagues

Re: Re-engineering the Human Species, Eco-System and Probabilities of Risk

You are to be congratulated on the ATCA think-piece, "Low Probability High Impact and Black Swan Events," based on your keynote delivered in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Opening up the global dialogue on these technologies and their risks -- including Black Swans -- seems to many of us to be essential to a truly human future.

C Ben Mitchell

Dr C Ben Mitchell serves as Editor of the journal Ethics and Medicine; is a Fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future at Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago-Kent School of Law, Chicago, Illinois; a Consultant with the Center for Genetics & Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University; and has served as a consultant to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies (C-PET)) and the author of the recent volume, Biotechnology and the Human Good (Georgetown University Press, 2007).