My friends at SFSignal.com invited me to interview Michael Hanlon about his new book Eternity: our next billion years.
Michael is the science editor for the Daily Mail in the UK. His book goes against the current doomsday grain and looks through a future where us humans are still hanging around. It is split into three parts: near future (new few centuries), mid-future (few thousand years) and far-future (the point where the Earth will actually die, a billion years hence). The chapters are mostly science essays, but there is some sprinkling of speculative fiction in the later chaps.
Michael’s book covers a wide range of topics including how the geo-political landscape may change in the next few years, what languages we might be speaking, how drought, famine and over-population will affect the world, the singularity, things that he doesn’t think will happen, things that would change the course of history if they did happen, and others.
After the break is an excerpt: (more…)
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In a classic case of “I wished I’d thought of that”, the eZine “Slate” has created “Choose Your Own Apocalypse”, a cross between Jeopardy and Armageddon. With a matrix of 144 (that’s 12 x 12 for you non-geeks), Josh Levin has put together a list of “How America will End” to parallel Alexander Demandt’s similar search which ended up with 210 reason why Rome fell.
The vertical axis is Man’s Fault vs. Nature’s Fault, while the horizontal is Everybody Lives, Everybody Dies. Pick your five, and come back Friday to see what others have chosen. Though it only concerns the fall of one country (ours!), it is a fitting addition to the Thinking Man’s Guide to the End of the World.
The Matrix (pin intended) is here. The desciption of all 144 is here.
When I put my selected five in the window, it gives me the following result:
You are a humanitarian internationalist. You’re convinced mankind will terminate America—but at least we won’t off ourselves in the process. You’ll know you’re right when: Everyone on Earth pledges allegiance to a world government; the feds default on the national debt.
For my five (and the description from Slate): (more…)
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With news of asteroid 2009 DD45 near-miss of the Earth, what better time for a tool that shows the impact implications? Carlos Labs has released Ground Zero, where you can pick your location and, by selecting the type of approxiamate devastation causer (pick from Asteroid impact to the nukes dropped during WWII) you’ll be shown a Google map of the destruction area.
Gives a new meaning to “mash-up”, don’t it?
Just remember, be prepared, and make sure your next living location is outside the blast zone! Click here for the Thinking Man’s Guide to the End of the World.
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A large percentage of science fiction writing is tied to some kind of apocalyptic event. And
a large portion of the daily news actually portends such an event (for a lighter look, read The Thinking Man’s Guide to the End of the World).
John Joseph Adams, assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, has gathered apocalyptic stories by the heavyweights. This is the 3rd collection I’ve read put together by Mr. Adams, and his mix of stories and introductions pull the collections together. We are ready for the next one, John.
In this volume, I especially enjoyed:
- How We Got In and Out of Town Again by Johnathan Lethem;
- Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels by George R. R. Martin;
- When SysAdmins Ruled the World by Core Doctorow;
- Artie’s Angels by Catherine Wells;
- Judgement Passed by Jerry Oltion (fav of the bunch);
Notes on each story follow: (more…)
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Read the introduction article here. 
As we pass the anniversary of Y2K, a techno-phobe’s thoughts turn to the many other ways in which technology could accelerate the end of the world. Even though our mass of old computer programs did not rise up and crash on 1/1/2000, that does not mean that robots, AI, nanotechnology and the like are not worrisome for our future.
Some of you (and you know who you are) are thinking: the three laws will protect us. (more…)
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With the end of the Mayan calendar looming in a scant five years (December 21, 2012 give or take), there is a seeming
increase of talk, movies, articles and general water cooler chatter about the end of the world these days. Most of it I find quite entertaining, some of it ridiculous, and other parts simply in need of a good thrashing. And the public at large believes more of what they see in a Will Smith I Am Legend movie than what they should be able to think through with their own brains (I will admit that whatever Mr. Smith says is alright by me, but, let’s face it, he’s no George Clooney).
A lot of people are thinking about the end of the world (we know that every human wants to think that something BIG is going to happen during their lifetime, that NOW is the most important time to be alive…it’s part of our genetic makeup, I suppose). Some are even thinking about avoiding it. But the vast majority are so busy that unless we send them a message on their Blackberry’s or iPhones, I’m quite certain they might miss it.
In spite of being politely asked to leave the Boy Scouts (or the WeBlows) at an early age, I do believe in being prepared. We’ve got five years to plan and prepare so might as well get a head start, right?
So, in doing my part, I present this compendium; (more…)
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