EP 918 Can Humans Survive the Scientific Challenges of Our Own Making?

The doomsday clock is ticking…and who can we blame if the alarm is sounded and we find out it’s too late for the human species to recover?  There’s a certain irony that all of the good things that science and technology have wrought, bring with them byproducts which are the key ingredients of our own demise.  For instance, will AI and its growing intelligence determine that we are no longer needed?  Whoops, there goes the Anthropocene.  Or if the convenience of plastics results in its overuse to the degree that its contaminants, breaking down in our bodies, leads to our demise.  Or the ability to harness the atom and the development of the atomic bomb results in a madman turning the switch and the conflagration we’ve all feared arrives.  To discuss these weighty issues, and major concerns, is Dr. Peter Solomon–a scientist, educator, entrepreneur, and author.  In his latest book, a novel, “100 Years to Extinction”, he looks at these and other ‘achievements of science’ to determine if astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s dire prediction of human extinction by 2117 may be right.

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