‘Doomsday Clock’ puts humanity 90 seconds away from annihilation, the worst record in its history. Science

90 seconds left for the world to end. Before you run to the nuclear shelter, you should know that, although it is disturbing, it is nothing more than a symbolic calculation that is carried out by a committee convened every year. Bulletin of the Nuclear Scientists. It’s one of those traditions (like the January Slope, a commitment to abstinence). dry january Or blue Monday) which makes the first month of the year the cruelest month of the year, and reveals how close these experts believe humanity is to annihilation (doomsday clock) in its midnight, a euphemism behind which lies complete destruction. The closer it gets, the less time will be left for the end of the world. The good news is that the hands remain the same distance apart as last year. The bad news: 2023 was the most worrisome on record since the clock started in 1947.

Because of concern? In the presentation of their findings in Washington this Tuesday, the Guardians of the Apocalypse cited the rise of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the war between Russia and Ukraine and the war waged by Israel in Gaza, biological threats, climate change, and climate change. The crisis and widespread misinformation were propagated in many cases by the states themselves. On the program, which, alas, started late, they had popular science popularizer Bill Nye, and the leading voice was Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He explained that it is about answering two questions: “Is humanity safer or is it in greater danger this year than last?” And: “Is humanity safer this year or in greater danger than we have been practicing for the past 75 years?”

This is not a stable world

Bronson also said that no one should be fooled: “Setting the clocks 90 seconds to midnight is not a sign that the world stands still. Quite the opposite. These trends are increasingly indicating ominous signs of a global catastrophe. The threat of a nuclear explosion from the war in Ukraine remains a constant threat. And the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the war in Gaza once again demonstrate the horrors of modern war, even without nuclear escalation. As if this were not enough, nuclear-armed countries are engaged in modernization programs, which threatens to create a new arms race,” said Bronson.

With regard to climate change, the expert recalled that “the Earth experienced the hottest year ever recorded” and “large-scale floods, fires and other climate-related disasters have intensified.” “And the lack of action on climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.” In the debate that followed the announcement, artificial intelligence, with its promises for the advancement of humanity and its dangers, was another star topic, with particular attention paid to what this new technology might do to influence the mood of voters. can, with the use of strategies such as deepfake, In an electorally decisive year for a large portion of the world’s population.

These apocalyptic clockmakers often receive criticism for their alarmism, but they defend that this is exactly what they do, alerting humanity to the dangers that threaten it. The group is made up of top-level experts, including Nobel laureates, who involved themselves in the game of hypotheses that began shortly after the first atomic bomb and included Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and many of its members. manhattan project Bulletin launched.

In 2018, the clock read 11:58 pm. They were never that close to midnight, except for one occasion: it was in 1953 when the United States and the Soviet Union were in the middle of an arms race with thermonuclear bombs. Since that record six years ago, they’ve happened one after another. In January 2020, he abandoned it with 100 seconds remaining. Then the coronavirus pandemic came (and the clock didn’t move). Later, due to a war in Europe in 2023 only 90 seconds, another historical mark, separated us from the end of time.

In its first version, in 1947, it was set at seven minutes. Since then, it has moved 25 times, becoming a reference in popular culture, thanks to Cameo in films like Red phone, shall we fly to Moscow?, by Stanley Kubrick, or songs by rock groups like the Smashing Pumpkins. The best records came in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the Berlin Wall. In 1991, the hands were 17 minutes before midnight, 7 minutes earlier than the previous year. Since then, and except for 2009 and 2010, the clock has not stopped moving. Climate change was included as a serious threat to humanity in 2007 and this factor has not failed to give rise to bad omen even after all these years.

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