Our Final Hour: A Scientist's WarningBasic Books, 17 mar 2009 - 240 páginas 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. |
Índice
1 | |
9 | |
Have We Been Lucky to Survive This Long? | 25 |
Terror and Error | 41 |
Perpetrators and Palliatives | 61 |
Slowing Science Down? | 73 |
Asteroid Impacts | 89 |
Human Threats to Earth | 99 |
A Pascalian Wager | 115 |
The Doomsday Philosophers | 135 |
The End of Science? | 141 |
Does Our Fate Have Cosmic Significance? | 157 |
Beyond Earth | 169 |
Epilogue | 185 |
209 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todo
Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning : how Terror, Error, and Environmental ... Martin J. Rees Vista previa restringida - 2003 |
Términos y frases comunes
actually advances alien already asteroid impacts atmosphere atoms Bill Joy biological biosphere bomb brain carbon dioxide catastrophe challenge chance changes claimed comets cosmic cosmos crash dangerous decades devastation develop disaster Doomsday argument Earth Edward Teller energy entire environmental epidemic experiments extinction fifty Freeman Dyson future Galaxy genetic genome global warming greenhouse grey goo habitat happen hazard human human-induced hundred instance intelligence Internet Jonathan Schell kilometres laboratory less living machines Mars million years ago missile Moon nanotechnology natural nonetheless novel nuclear power nuclear weapons oceans orbit outcome particles pathogens perhaps physical physicists planets population pose potential predict probes programme quantum reassuring risk Robert Zubrin robotic runaway scale scenarios scientific scientists seems smallpox solar system species spread stars strangelets supereruptions technical techniques Terrestrial Planet Finder theory thousand threat tion Torino scale trigger twenty-first century universe vaccines virus viruses worldwide
Pasajes populares
Página 11 - So I travelled, stopping ever and again, in great strides of a thousand years or more, drawn on by the mystery of the earth's fate, watching with a strange fascination the sun grow larger and duller in the westward sky, and the life of the old earth ebb away.
Referencias a este libro
An Introduction to Sustainable Development Peter P. Rogers,Kazi F. Jalal,John A. Boyd Vista previa restringida - 2012 |
From Superpower to Besieged Global Power: Restoring World Order After the ... Edward A. Kolodziej,Roger E. Kanet Vista previa restringida - 2010 |