Catastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator,...
Catastrophes, whether natural or man-made, that could destroy the human race are often dismissed as alarmist or fanciful, the stuff of science fiction. In fact the risk of such disasters is real, and growing. A collision with an asteroid that might kill a quarter of humanity...
The risk of global catastrophes is real, and growing. An asteroid collision that could kill a quarter of humanity in twenty-four hours and the rest soon after; irreversible global warming that could flip, precipitating "snowball earth;" a particle accelerator disaster that could...