A few years ago, astronomer Martin Rees published a book called “Our Final Hour”. In it, he estimated a 50% chance that humanity will be extinct by 2100. (Why he did not call the book “Our Final Century” I do not know). Terror inducing title aside, his forecast was based on an assessment of the probability of either a malicious or accidental release of hugely destructive technology during the 21st century.
His views gave rise to a second theory: that we Earthlings have not come into contact with populations from other planets simply because any such society would first develop the capability to destroy itself and then accidentally or intentionally do precisely that in the long period before it develops any means to safely travel to other solar systems or galaxies.
Given that there appear to many, many, MANY more planets in our universe than we previously thought (the latest estimates exceed 160 billion in our Milky Way alone) it strikes as increasingly unlikely that life should only have evolved on planet Earth and nowhere else. If global warming is inconveniently true, then Rees’ theories are uncomfortably plausible.
Giving further credence to Reece’s assessment is the the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who this month moved the minute hand on their doomsday clock one minute forward to 5 minutes to midnight. The symbolic clock was first set up in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had worked on the Manhattan project to develop the first atomic weapons. The current group of scientists running the project, which includes a list of Nobel laureates, released a statement last week saying: “Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed."
Given that North Korea now appears to be run by a trust fund kid, not to mention the political grandstanding of republican party candidates in describing exactly what sort of commander-in-chief they would be if elected later this year, perhaps these scientists and, more astoundingly, the Mayans, might be right after all.
It’s getting INSANE, I know. Let it not be true.
His views gave rise to a second theory: that we Earthlings have not come into contact with populations from other planets simply because any such society would first develop the capability to destroy itself and then accidentally or intentionally do precisely that in the long period before it develops any means to safely travel to other solar systems or galaxies.
Given that there appear to many, many, MANY more planets in our universe than we previously thought (the latest estimates exceed 160 billion in our Milky Way alone) it strikes as increasingly unlikely that life should only have evolved on planet Earth and nowhere else. If global warming is inconveniently true, then Rees’ theories are uncomfortably plausible.
Giving further credence to Reece’s assessment is the the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who this month moved the minute hand on their doomsday clock one minute forward to 5 minutes to midnight. The symbolic clock was first set up in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had worked on the Manhattan project to develop the first atomic weapons. The current group of scientists running the project, which includes a list of Nobel laureates, released a statement last week saying: “Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed."
Given that North Korea now appears to be run by a trust fund kid, not to mention the political grandstanding of republican party candidates in describing exactly what sort of commander-in-chief they would be if elected later this year, perhaps these scientists and, more astoundingly, the Mayans, might be right after all.
It’s getting INSANE, I know. Let it not be true.
