Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century? by Martin Rees |
by George Orwell
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by Martin Rees
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by James Lovelock
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The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity by James Lovelock |
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Our Final Hour spells out doomsday scenarios for cosmic collisions, high-energy experiments gone wrong and self-replicating machines that steadily devour the biosphere. Just when you've stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb, Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, comes along with teeming armies of deadly viruses, nanobots, and armed fanatics. Beyond the hazards most of us know about--smallpox, terrorists, global warming--Rees introduces the new threats of the 21st century and the unholy political and scientific alliances that have made them possible.
Our Final Hour spells out doomsday scenarios for cosmic collisions, high-energy experiments gone wrong and self-replicating machines that steadily devour the biosphere. Just when you've stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb, Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, comes along with teeming armies of deadly viruses, nanobots, and armed fanatics. Beyond the hazards most of us know about--smallpox, terrorists, global warming--Rees introduces the new threats of the 21st century and the unholy political and scientific alliances that have made them possible.
If we can avoid driving ourselves to extinction, he writes, a glorious future awaits; if not, our devices may very well destroy the universe: "What happens here on Earth, in this century, could conceivably make the difference between a near eternity filled with ever more complex and subtle forms of life and one filled with nothing but base matter."
Rees places much of the blame for many technological debacles squarely on the shoulders of the scientists who participate in perfecting environmental destruction, biological menaces and ever-more powerful weapons. So is there any hope for humanity? Rees is vaguely optimistic on this point, offering solutions that would require a level of worldwide cooperation humans have yet to exhibit. If the daily news isn't enough to make you want to crawl under a rock, this book will do the trick. --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com
Synopsis
A world-renowned astrophysicist advan ces an astonishing and alarming thesis: the odds a re no better than 50/50 that our species will surv ive to the end of the twenty-first century A scientist known for unraveling the compl exities of the universe over millions of years, Si r Martin Rees now warns that humankind is potentia lly the maker of its own demise--and that of the c osmos. Though the twenty-first century could be th e critical era in which life on Earth spreads beyo nd our solar system, it is just as likely that we have endangered the future of the entire universe. With clarity and precision, Rees maps out the way s technology could destroy our species and thereby foreclose the potential of a living universe whos e evolution has just begun.Rees boldly forecas ts the startling risks that stem from our accelera ting rate of technological advances. We could be w iped out by lethal "engineered" airborne viruses, or by rogue nano-machines that replicate catastrop hically. Experiments that crash together atomic nu clei could start a chain reaction that erodes all atoms of Earth, or could even tear the fabric of s pace itself. Through malign intent or by mistake, a single event could trigger global disaster. Thou gh we can never completely safeguard our future, i ncreased regulation and inspection can help us to prevent catastrophe. Rees's vision of the infi nite future that we have put at risk--a cosmos mor e vast and diverse than any of us has ever imagine d--is both a work of stunning scientific originali ty and a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BROUGHT US THE BOMB, and the nuclear threat will never leave us; the short-term threat from terrorism is high on the public and political agenda; inequalities in wealth and welfare get ever wider. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BROUGHT US THE BOMB, and the nuclear threat will never leave us; the short-term threat from terrorism is high on the public and political agenda; inequalities in wealth and welfare get ever wider. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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