Climate Change

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In previous generations, it would take a state actor the size of a nation state to bring about the end. But now you're worried that terrorist organizations could just be rogue anybody. The International Tomogand as your agency could do a pretty good job at monitoring anything in that arena. When it comes to bio and cyber, then the equipment is readily available to everyone. And it's harder to monitor without surveillance. That's what worries me. In an old fashioned village, you can tolerate the idiot, but we can't when they have such a enormous range. So that's my biggest worry. Of course, COVID-19 was a wake up call, which told us that there could

Shermer and Rees discuss: existential threats • overpopulation • biodiversity loss • climate change • AI and self-driving cars, robots, and unemployment • his bet with Steven Pinker • his disagreement with Richard Dawkins • how science works as a communal activity • scientific creativity • science communication • science education • why there aren’t more women and people of color in STEM fields • verification vs. falsification • Bayesian reasoning and scientific progress • Model Dependent Realism and the nature of reality Fermi’s Paradox • why he’s an atheist but wants to be buried in the Presbyterian church in which he was raised • mysterian mysteries.

Martin Rees is Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society, Fellow (and former Master) of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He sits as a member of the UK House of Lords. He is the author of many bestselling popular science books, including: On the Future; Just Six Numbers; Before the Beginning; and Our Final Hour. His newest book is If Science is to Save Us.