# Anders Sandberg Anders Kristoffer Sandberg (b. July 11, 1972) is a **Swedish computational neuroscientist and futurist**, **senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute** (2006-2024) until FHI's closure in April 2024, and subsequently at the **Institute for Futures Studies** in Stockholm. A PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University (2008), Sandberg is one of the most prolific and intellectually broad figures in the transhumanist / longtermist / existential risk research cluster — with published work spanning whole-brain emulation (a 2008 FHI technical report that became the canonical reference on the topic), cognitive enhancement, the Fermi paradox, information hazards, human enhancement ethics, the long-term future of intelligence, and the ethics of emerging technologies. Sandberg is also among the most accessible and prolific public communicators of the [[TESCREAL]] intellectual cluster — his blog *Andart II*, his long Twitter/X presence, and his frequent conference keynotes have made him one of the principal translators of technical longtermist research into public-facing discussion. Sandberg matters for the KB for three reasons. First, he is the **principal technical researcher** in the FHI / transhumanist cluster across roughly two decades — while [[Nick Bostrom]] (FHI director) and [[Toby Ord]] (FHI fellow) were the most publicly visible figures, Sandberg was consistently the researcher producing the substantive technical work that the movement's more popular publications drew on, particularly the 2008 whole-brain-emulation roadmap that remains the canonical reference. Second, his **pre-FHI career as a leader in the Extropy Institute and Humanity+ transhumanist movements** of the 1990s-2000s connects the contemporary longtermist / EA / AI-safety ecosystem to its 1990s transhumanist origins — Sandberg participated in the Extropy online community alongside Max More, [[Ray Kurzweil]], and Eliezer Yudkowsky, and is one of the documentary continuity figures in the movement's intellectual genealogy. Third, his **post-FHI work at the Institute for Futures Studies** (following FHI's April 2024 closure over the Bostrom-2023-apology fallout) represents the post-FHI dispersal pattern for senior longtermist researchers — the intellectual work is continuing under different institutional umbrellas as the original Oxford-concentrated infrastructure has dispersed. ## Background - Born July 11, 1972, in Solna, Sweden - MS in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University (1999) - PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University (2008; dissertation on Bayesian attractor neural networks) - Active in the **Extropy Institute** (1990s-early 2000s), one of the principal early online transhumanist communities - Chair of the Swedish Transhumanist Association (2003-2006) - Research fellow, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Oxford (2006-2009) - Senior research fellow, Future of Humanity Institute (2006-April 2024) - Senior research fellow, Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm (2024-present, following FHI closure) - Based in Oxford through 2024; Stockholm thereafter ## Pre-FHI: Extropy Institute and Transhumanism (1990s-2000s) Sandberg's intellectual formation took place in the Extropy Institute online community of the 1990s and early 2000s — the same community that produced [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]], Max More (who founded the Extropy Institute), Ray Kurzweil-adjacent thinkers, and many of the figures who subsequently populated the LessWrong / MIRI / FHI / EA ecosystem. The Extropy community's core commitments — technological progress as morally positive, human cognitive and physical enhancement as legitimate goals, the seriousness of long-term-future-of-intelligence speculation, opposition to "bioconservative" critiques of enhancement — are preserved substantially intact in Sandberg's subsequent work. As Chair of the Swedish Transhumanist Association (2003-2006), Sandberg was one of the principal organizational figures in the European transhumanist movement during the period when the movement was transitioning from fringe online-community status to institutional recognition through organizations like Humanity+, the World Transhumanist Association's successor organization. ## FHI Tenure (2006-2024) Sandberg joined FHI in 2006, shortly after its 2005 founding under [[Nick Bostrom]]. Across the 18-year tenure, his published work included: ### Whole-Brain Emulation Roadmap (2008) The co-authored (with Bostrom) FHI technical report *Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap* remains the canonical reference document on the technical and philosophical issues surrounding computational whole-brain emulation. The document systematically addressed: - Scanning technologies required for brain emulation - Simulation fidelity requirements and their computational implications - Philosophical issues around identity, consciousness, and the continuation-of-self question - Timelines and bottlenecks for development The whole-brain emulation research program is one of the technical foundations of both the transhumanist "substrate independence" claim and the longtermist / AI-safety discussion of what superintelligence might look like. ### Cognitive Enhancement Sandberg has been a principal researcher in the applied-ethics literature on cognitive enhancement, including early work on the ethics of stimulant medications for non-medical cognitive enhancement, brain-computer interfaces, and pharmacological enhancement. ### Fermi Paradox Sandberg's 2018 paper (with Stuart Armstrong and Milan Ćirković) "Dissolving the Fermi Paradox" argued, using a careful probabilistic treatment of the Drake equation, that the apparent "Fermi paradox" (the absence of observed extraterrestrial civilizations) is substantially weaker as evidence than typically assumed once parameter uncertainty is properly modeled. The paper has been one of the more widely-cited recent contributions to the literature. ### Information Hazards Sandberg has contributed to the FHI research program on "information hazards" — the ethics of publishing research that could enable dual-use harms (biosecurity, nuclear weapons design, AI alignment failures). ### Long-Term Future Substantive work on the "grand futures" question — what the trillions-of-years future of intelligence might look like under various assumptions about physics, computation, and values. ## *Grand Futures* (2025) Sandberg's book-length treatment of the long-term future of intelligence, *Grand Futures: Mind, Matter, and Meaning at Cosmic Scales*, was substantially written during the FHI period and published in 2025 after FHI's closure. The book is a systematic survey of what is physically and informationally possible in the universe over cosmic timescales, and functions as one of the principal systematic statements of the longtermist "grand futures" vision. ## Post-FHI Transition FHI's April 2024 closure — following the Bostrom-2023-apology fallout over a 1996 email and subsequent institutional tensions with Oxford — displaced all FHI researchers. Sandberg's transition to the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm is part of the broader post-FHI dispersal pattern: - **Stockholm position**: Senior research fellow role continuing his long-term-future / existential-risk research - **Institute for Futures Studies**: An established Swedish think tank with a broader remit than FHI; Sandberg's appointment brings the longtermist research agenda into its portfolio - **Continued public communication**: *Andart II* blog, conferences, and public engagement continue ## Public Communication Sandberg is among the most prolific public communicators in the [[TESCREAL]] intellectual cluster: - **Andart II blog** (since 2009): Prolific and intellectually broad, covering the full range of transhumanist / longtermist topics - **Twitter/X presence**: Very large following; consistent engagement with public discussions on AI safety, existential risk, and adjacent topics - **Conference speaking**: Regular presentations at [[Effective Altruism]] Global, longtermist conferences, and academic conferences - **Media engagement**: Frequent interview subject for journalism on futurism, existential risk, and emerging technology ethics ## Connection to the KB Ecosystem - **[[Future of Humanity Institute]]**: Senior research fellow 2006-2024; one of the institute's principal researchers across its existence. - **[[Nick Bostrom]]**: FHI director; co-author of the whole-brain-emulation roadmap and long-term research collaborator. - **[[Toby Ord]]**: FHI colleague; collaborator on existential-risk research. - **[[Transhumanism]]**: One of the most documented continuity figures between the 1990s transhumanist movement and the contemporary longtermist / EA / AI-safety ecosystem. - **[[TESCREAL]]**: Principal public-communication figure in the cluster. - **[[Longtermism]]**: Substantive contributor to the longtermist research agenda. - **[[Existential Risk]]**: Significant contributor to the existential-risk research literature. - **Whole-brain emulation**: Author of the canonical technical reference document. ## See Also - [[Nick Bostrom]] - [[Toby Ord]] - [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] - [[Future of Humanity Institute]] - [[Transhumanism]] - [[Longtermism]] - [[TESCREAL]] - [[Existential Risk]]