How useful is it to think about the end of the world, and the various ways in which humans can become extinct? How much effort should society put into that task? And what can be learned from the history of previous forecasts and warnings about the end of the world?

In this talk, existential risks researcher Phil Torres will draw from his forthcoming book "Human Extinction: A History of Thinking About the End of the World" to trace the origins and evolution of the idea of human extinction across past centuries.

Whereas it was once widely believed that even if a worldwide catastrophe were to occur, God would make sure that everything’s okay in the end, the past century and a half has witnessed the traumatic realization that human extinction is not only possible, but increasingly probable.

Topics to be covered will include ancient pondering of the apocalypse, the decline of religion in the nineteenth century, the discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the 1850s, reactions to the atomic bombs of 1945, the nuclear arms race of the Cold War, the “impact hypothesis” of the 1980s to explain the dinosaurs’ disappearance, speculations about ecological collapse, and more recent fears that “dual use” emerging technologies could pose existential hazards by placing unprecedented destructive power in the hands of small groups and even single individuals.

Phil will argue that, only by understanding this history, can we fully appreciate our current existential predicament and, perhaps, anticipate what’s next. However lucky we were to have survived the Cold War, we may need to be far luckier to survive the twenty-first century.