Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning

Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning

by Martin Rees
Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning

Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning

by Martin Rees

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Overview

A scientist known for unraveling the complexities of the universe over millions of years, Sir Martin Rees now warns that humankind is potentially the maker of its own demise -- and that of the cosmos. Though the twenty-first century could be the critical era in which life on Earth spreads beyond 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 ways technology could destroy our species and thereby foreclose the potential of a living universe whose evolution has just begun. Rees boldly forecasts the startling risks that stem from our accelerating rate of technological advances. We could be wiped out by lethal "engineered" airborne viruses, or by rogue nano-machines that replicate catastrophically. Experiments that crash together atomic nuclei could start a chain reaction that erodes all atoms of Earth, or could even tear the fabric of space itself. Through malign intent or by mistake, a single event could trigger global disaster. Though we can never completely safeguard our future, increased regulation and inspection can help us to prevent catastrophe. Rees's vision of the infinite future that we have put at risk -- a cosmos more vast and diverse than any of us has ever imagined -- is both a work of stunning scientific originality and a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780465068630
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 04/14/2004
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.38(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Martin Rees is a leading researcher on cosmic evolution, black holes, and galaxies. He has himself originated many key ideas, and brings a unique perspective to themes discussed in this book. He is currently a Royal Society Research Professor, and Great Britain's Astronomer Royal. Through based in Cambridge University for most of his career, he travels extensively, and collaborates wit many colleagues in the U.S. and elsewhere. He is an enthusiast for international collaboration in research, and is a member of several foreign academies.

Table of Contents

Prefacevii
1Prologue1
2Technology Shock9
3The Doomsday Clock: Have We Been Lucky to Survive This Long?25
4Post-2000 Threats: Terror and Error41
5Perpetrators and Palliatives61
6Slowing Science Down?73
7Baseline Natural Hazards: Asteroid Impacts89
8Human Threats to Earth99
9Extreme Risks: A Pascalian Wager115
10The Doomsday Philosophers135
11The End of Science?141
12Does Our Fate Have Cosmic Significance?157
13Beyond Earth169
14Epilogue185
Notes189
Index209
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