Is this the end of the world as we know it? -Hayden Shear

Our world today is filled with many uncertainties that past generations would have never imagined would come about. We have new threats like nuclear war and more advanced weapons that have capabilities to cause havoc from anywhere in the world. Humanity has seemed to care less for our planet, but that may soon be changing for the better. In the book, Question Everything, it has many essays compiled from the New York Times philosophy series and the chapter that I will be discussing about is Chapter XI. 

 

Hans J. Morgenthau had many warnings for our world during the cold war. He, like many other people, saw the danger of humans possessing such power with nuclear weapons. He wrote many works that tried to make people realize the danger that could befall humanity if nuclear weapons were to get into the wrong hands. His most famous work is Politics Among Nations. This work was very influential during the cold war, but had many criticisms especially after the cold war because ultimately no nuclear war has broken out. The cold war was a time of uncertainty and it has now passed, but there is still uncertainty in other areas now in today's world. Humanity has developed new weapons and even the ability to alter diseases and create other threats like bio-weapons. We all know the threat that viruses and diseases can have, especially after going through Covid, but it is especially worrying knowing that people have the ability to alter certain viruses to make them more contagious or lethal. The next major threat to humanity in my opinion is not nuclear war, but rather the development of extremely lethal viruses or other diseases that could be deployed anywhere without anyone knowing. This could lead to an apocalyptic level threat. I personally think that viruses or bio-weapons are more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

Mary Shelly's famous book The Last Man shows the dangers of a world wide apocalyptic level pandemic. According to Question Everything, "The Last Man is set in the year 2100. The novel’s driving conflict is a highly contagious disease. Like the coronavirus, the novel’s plague spreads by a combination of airborne particles and contact with carriers. In both cases, it has been incubated, exacerbated, and left unchecked by destructive human behavior." Apocalyptic scenarios have always intrigued me and are some of my favorite sources of fiction. One of my favorite authors is Cormac McCarthy and his novel The Road. This book to me shows the true brutish nature of humanity when we are faced with nothing but survival. These two books to me are what I believe would happen if faced with such a threat.

I try to not look at the world in a glass half empty way, but I feel humans are more of a threat to ourselves than any other threat like a cosmic threat. Although I do believe that if humans colonize other planets and solar systems, we might have a better chance at survival, because our planet will not be here forever. The thing is, will we destroy ourselves before we have the technology capable of exploring our universe for other habitable planets?

 

What could humans do to prevent ourselves from causing apocalyptic level events? Well, I asked ChatGPT because I do not even know where to begin. ChatGPT gave me a list of things we could do. I will include some suggestions that I thought were interesting:

1. Promote Scientific Literacy and Critical Thinking

• Equip citizens to recognize misinformation, resist fear-based reactions, and demand evidence-based policies.

• Better education systems foster long-term thinking and collective responsibility.
  

2. Build Resilient Systems

• Strengthen healthcare, food security, water systems, and digital infrastructure to withstand global shocks.

• Invest in decentralized and redundant systems that reduce dependence on fragile global supply chains.
  
  

I agreed heavily with the first point that it gave because I personally think that we lack evidence based policies today and we do make many decisions based on fear rather than what is actually factual. My favorite part about ChatGPT's response was its bonus thought it provided.

Bonus Thought:

The real challenge is not lack of knowledge—it’s willpower, coordination, and prioritization. Humanity has the tools; the question is whether we’ll use them wisely and in time.

I found it interesting that even ChatGPT had some uncertainty about whether we will use our tools wisely. I then asked whether or not it though AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons or viruses and it had this to say:

⚠️ Why AI Could Be a Top Threat

1. Unpredictable Behavior
   Advanced AI systems, especially those with agency or autonomy, may act in ways their creators don’t fully understand or control—especially if misaligned with human values.

2. Scalability of Harm
   Unlike a human, AI can operate at massive scale, across networks, with speed—making it a force multiplier in cyberattacks, misinformation, surveillance, or automated warfare.

3. Loss of Human Control
   As AI takes over more critical systems (e.g., infrastructure, finance, weapons), there's a risk of losing human oversight—especially if incentives push toward faster deployment without safeguards.

4. Concentration of Power
   A few actors—governments or corporations—could use AI to entrench power, suppress dissent, or destabilize democracies, mirroring the dangers of totalitarian surveillance or bioweapons.

Overall, I think it is very hard to predict what will happen to humanity. Knowing a little bit about how the world works, whatever happens to humanity it will most likely be something nobody was expecting or at least very few. I do have hope that some of the things that ChatGPT suggested might happen. I do think that eventually we will have most people thinking critically about issues and react based on evidence and not superstition. I also think that education will keep getting better, it is still amazing to see how far humanity has gotten in that aspect. It really was not all that long ago that most people could not read or write. Hopefully, in our future we have the wherewithal to not do anything too destructive to ourselves.