Our Final Century: Will Civilisation Survive the Twenty-first Century?: The 50/50 Threat to Humanity's Survival - Softcover

Rees, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099436868 ISBN 13: 9780099436867

Publisher: Arrow, 2004

Synopsis

World authority on astrophysics, Sir Martin Rees, takes us on a journey through all the things which could wipe out mankind in the near future. From asteroids to disease to scientific discoveries gone wrong (from nanobots to the large Hadron collider) these are scenarios from disaster movies, analysed with a serious scientific eye. Some of these things definitely won't happen, some genuinely might – this is one book you won't be able to put down and which you'll never forget.

About this title

Review:

Just when you've stopped worrying, along comes Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, with teeming armies of deadly viruses, nanobots, and armed fanatics in Our Final Century.

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. He spells out doomsday scenarios for cosmic collisions, high-energy experiments gone wrong, and self-replicating machines that steadily devour the biosphere. 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.

For many technological debacles, Rees places much of the blame 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

Review:

"Sir Martin is no doom merchant ... His prognostications, written in laymen's language, are all the more chilling for the reasonable tone in which they are expressed" (Sunday Telegraph)

"Alarming, certainly, but alarmist never - Rees delivers his terrible prophecies with donnish understatement " (The Evening Standard)

"One of the most provocative and unsettling books I have read for many years ... That a scientist so distinguished as Rees should air these fierce anxieties is a sign that something is amiss" (J G Ballard Daily Telegraph)

"It matters that one should understand the provenance of this important and disturbing book. It is not another futurological diatribe saying that the end is nigh, but a lucid, calm, profoundly well-informed work by a distinguished scientist, whose humanity - evidenced by a serious ethical commitment and a quiet sense of humour- balances the dispassionate logic with which he surveys his subject: the multitude of threats facing humanity in the twenty-first century from error and terror in the nuclear, biological and environmental spheres" (Literary Review)

"Rees does the maths of risk beautifully, as well as explaining the vital importance of understanding the fragility and cosmic smallness of the human present... The odds are small, but the risks are staggering, and that is Rees's excellent point in this thought-provoking book" (Sunday Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0099436868
• ISBN 13: 9780099436867
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228