The Evolution of Extinction and Human Agency

For most of human history, the end of the world was a divine promise, inevitable and liberating for the holy alone. But the invention of extinction changed that. This was no prophecy. It was discovery – a realization that the universe could go on without us – and probably would.

In this episode, philosopher Thomas Moynihan joins Benjamin Bratton to trace the history of a shift in thinking: that the future isn’t guaranteed. They ask how our expanding knowledge of time reshaped not just our fears, but our obligations — not only to each other, but to futures we might never see. Along the way: AI, planetary intelligence, and the ethics of life beyond Earth.