Experts are holding a four-day conference this week on global catastrophic risks. To clarify the purpose of the event, these "experts" are discussing preventative measures to enhance the quality of human life, while deterring the end of it. The conference covers everything from super intelligent machines, a la I, Robot, to enhanced weaponry. In this menagerie of technological death goodies, I decided to take a look into reducing the risk of my demise at the hands of an overzealous super computer by citing some academic institutions that could potentially manufacture the end of the.....WORLD!

1. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

This potential den of death, located in Needham, MA, has been producing engineering and design geniuses for years. Recently, one of Olin's design students, Jeff Stanton, won the Google Earth competition to design a functional map of his campus. This reads to me like the stepping stones to an epic take over of the earth.

2. Virginia Tech

A brooding lair of doom, already infamous for a catastrophic event causing the death of innocent humans, it's no wonder that this campus is a site for suspicion. A group of Virginia Tech engineering students were just awarded top spot in a NASA-funded competition. These students could produce the machine that ends our lives.

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology  (M.I.T)

This school has produced whiz kids who can figure out how to swindle casinos out of blackjack, and the world's leading engineers. MIT students won't only cheat at blackjack, they could, potentially, cheat us out of our lives.

4. Stanford University

Students at Stanford are preparing to make California jails their playground, installing sensors for studies on energy efficiency -- or so they say. Reminds me of a bit of Foucault's criticism of the panoptican model of jail observance, obtaining power by putting mind over mind. Testing their Stanford sensors, a mini plan to take over!!

5. University of California- Berkeley

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), just awarded UC-Berkeley a grant for continued research, including new frontiers in artificial intelligence. Sounds like the NGA is funding a dark, dismal future.