The Rough Guide to Surviving the End of the World

by Paul Parsons

In the 21st century, there's no shortage of candidates for catastrophe. Climate change, killer asteroids or a cyborg power grab - how will the world end? And what exactly can we do about it? Fear not. The Rough Guide to Surviving the End of the World is a light-hearted but scientifically thorough look at threats to our very existence. It misses out no plausible apocalyptic scenario including: Earth, the broken planet: ice ages, mega tsunamis and supervolcanoes

It covers:

Technology out of control: bioengineering, robot attack and grey goo
Our own worst enemies: overpopulation, mass stupidity and obesity
Threats from space: death stars, black holes and alien invasions
Along the way, we meet some more unusual paths to oblivion such as the idea that life is one giant Matrixstyle computer simulation - that could be switched offany day.
To survive Armageddon you need the best advice. Whether apocalypse is now, next year or a long way off here's what to do when the ***t really hits the fan.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 2012 to coincide with the interest in the apocalyptic instigated by the claimed Mayan prophecies related to that year, this Rough Guide is level-headed and very well written, attempting to be honest about existential risk and not scare us where there is no need to do so.

It probably over-eggs climate risk as species-existential but then most writers and publishers do. Climate risk has become a form of potty religion although things are now beginning to settle down well over a decade later. It is important but not at the level of asteroid or supervolcano effects.

Otherwise, the book is quite fun, exploring some of the more outre existential threats and taking us as far as our fate at the end of the universe. A lot of it is science fiction or at least highly speculative science but the author does not hide this when it appears. He tells no lies.

There is a healthy realism throughout including a balanced if grim account of how things are likely to fall apart for us under extreme conditions. Some of the science will have been superceded since publication date so bear that in mind but it provides a good baseline account of the risks we face.

In particular I suspect that the discoveries emerging out of the James Webb Telescope might change some of the thinking about cosmological risk but we are talking here about fairly immense time-scales and distances.

My takeaway is that a lot of this we can do nothing about and what can be done seems quietly if slowly being done where resources permit. The one we should probably be most worried and where action can be taken is the asteroid strike whose effect could be truly devastating.

There is no point in going through all the other risks here although the supervolcano sitting under Yellowstone Park (and maybe others) should perhaps give us nightmares, given that there is nothing that can be done about it, its effect would be massively disastrous and it could 'blow' tomorrow.

On the other side of the coin, the risks from particle accelerators, solar flares and even magnetic pole reversals are put into scientific context and, though meaningful in the last two cases for our civilisation to some extent, do not appear to be existential for our species.

What may be lacking is a quantification of risk that (say) a three generation view of our situation might face set against a species view. Some things are serious and devastating now, others terminal very much later. Some things could happen now, others only far in the future.

Still, this is not a science book. It is a popular if honest entertainment that is happy to take in the risks of zombie plagues, the rise of the machines and alien invasion with frequent references to popular culture. It has to be said that it seems to cover pretty well anything that could destroy us.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was OK, but it was more about how the world will end as oppose to how to survive it, there was very little information about survival at all within it.