Stories of technological threat—and hope
Why we're publishing an issue full of Doomsday descriptions.
Magazine
November 2019
Cover design by Thomas Gaulkin. Photos courtesy Marcio Ramalho and Pixabay.
In this issue, top experts examine technology-related doomsdays the world might soon face if they go unaddressed, not to frighten readers, but to alert them, so they might act in time, making a loud and unmistakable demand: that the Earth be preserved, that the human experiment be extended, that midnight never toll.
Features
Former Defense Secretary William Perry: Why we must describe doomsday to keep it from happening
“What we’re really trying to do is find ways of averting doom.”
The apocalypse: It’s not the end of the world
The apocalypse probably won’t be quick or final. It will be an environment of misery, not an event or an end point.
Revisiting the climate collapse: The view from Nuuk in the year 2070
How poorly-mitigated fossil fuel use over the next 50 years would cause massive disruption of human societies.
The existential threat of antimicrobial resistance
This article presents a scenario portraying the economic and human costs that antimicrobial resistance could impose on society 30 years from now, if it is not addressed soon.
The threats from nanotechnology
While there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future of nanotechnology, policymakers should also consider its risks, including terrorist use of cheap scientific tools and militaries that develop destabilizing "cloaking" technology.
US ballistic missile defenses, 2019
According to the latest Missile Defense Review, the United States will continue to enhance its four primary missile defense systems without “any limitation or constraint.” Doing so is likely to be destabilizing.
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