The Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation that Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe by William PoundstoneMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
There have been people saying the end is coming since, well, for a very long time. In this book we find out how soon that end might be. Well...there isn’t just “one” doomsday calculation. There are several approaches, with different assumptions, and of course differing dates of doom. The ways of our demise are seemingly endless.
The first half of the book is the more difficult part, easier if you’re math or statistical inclined. Once you grasp all the concepts and thought experiments you move on to contemplating some interesting thoughts, questions that seem to plague us. Poundstone uses those probability calculations for why we don’t hear from alien life, what about artificial intelligence taking over; oh, and are we actually in a simulated reality? The singularity is near.
This is a good book for people who like to ponder the philosophical questions of life, the universe, and everything. Turns out the answer isn’t 42 but 1/137.
Thankfully there are several think tanks like the Future of Humanity Institute, and the Future of Life Institute, with the goal to prevent the end of the world as we know it. I feel fine.
Thanks to Little, Brown Spark and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.
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