Corey Powell. 20 options for the end of the world

20 options for the end of the world
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Corey Powell

Date of publication: October 31, 2000

Needless to say, we worked hard. Over the five hundred thousand years of the existence of homo sapiens, we have built huge cities, invented complex languages, and even sent reconnaissance robots to other planets. It is difficult to imagine that all this activity will come to an end. However, 99% of all species that have ever lived on planet Earth have gone extinct (including every single one of our hominid ancestors). In 1983, British cosmologist Brendon Carter wrote a paper called Doomsday Evidence, a statistical study of when we might join the species. If humanity is destined to extend its existence for some time and spread throughout our galaxy, the total number of people living in the world will be in the trillions. The likelihood that we will be in the top one hundredth of one percent of those people is quite small. Or, to put it another way, how likely is it that our generation will be the unlucky one? Now the population of our planet is approximately one fifth of the total number of people who have ever lived on Earth. The greater the number of witnesses there are, the higher the likelihood of being a witness to the Day of Judgment. Therefore, now our chances are not so small.

Human activities have significantly changed the natural course of life on our planet. And this, of course, also creates problems for us. Currently, the rate of extinction of species is ten thousand times higher than the average rate of this natural process in the history of the Earth, established from paleontological data. And if today we allow ourselves to abstractly worry about the fate of all kinds of rare animals, then tomorrow the time will come to think about ourselves.

Natural disasters

Option 1. Asteroid impact

In the Hollywood version, which has set the teeth on edge with its special effects, such a scenario is really difficult to take seriously. Meanwhile, there is no doubt that sooner or later some large space object will fall to Earth. And it is quite possible that he will not have to wait long. In 1908, a fragment of a comet known as the Tunguska meteorite, about two hundred feet in diameter, entered the atmosphere and fell in Siberia. When it collided with the Earth, there was a release of energy a thousand times more powerful than during the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima. According to astronomers, such phenomena occur approximately once every three centuries. Benny Peyser, a pessimistic anthropologist from John Moores University in Liverpool, is convinced that cosmic bodies from time to time have a destructive effect on human civilization. As an example, Peyser points to the fall of a celestial body in China in 1490, which killed 10 thousand people. Many scientists are skeptical of Peyser's statements: firstly, the cosmic body will most likely fall into the ocean, and even if some small meteorite flies to Earth, it will most likely land in the desert, mountains or jungle. However, if we are talking about a large asteroid, it doesn’t matter at all where it falls. Extraterrestrial objects more than half a mile in diameter that crash into Earth approximately every 250,000 years cause a firestorm followed by global cooling caused by the dust kicked up by the impact. In such a situation, individual representatives of the human race may still survive, but civilization is most likely doomed to destruction. If an asteroid with a diameter of more than five miles crashes into the Earth, this will lead to the extinction of most of the species inhabiting our planet. It is believed that an asteroid of approximately this size that fell to Earth marked the beginning of the extinction of the dinosaurs. If a terrible chill has not yet chilled you to the bone, take a look through a telescope at the so-called Cuiper Belt, located beyond Neptune, consisting of approximately 100 thousand icy balls, each 50 miles in diameter. From this place, a shower of small comets flies towards the Earth from time to time. If even one larger comet hits us, then there will be no higher forms of life left on Earth at all - not even immortal cockroaches.

Option 2. Gamma ray burst

If you look at the sky through a device that detects gamma radiation, it may seem that you are constantly being filmed by some kind of space paparazzi. Once every day or so, you'll see a bright flash that briefly eclipses everything around you and then fades away. These flashes of gamma rays, as astrophysicists have recently learned, come from distant galaxies and release powerful energy, 10 quadrillion (one followed by sixteen zeros) times greater than the energy released by our Sun. Such flares probably occur when two collapsing stars merge. Right up until the cataclysm, such a double star can be practically invisible, so we cannot know in advance whether it is now flying somewhere near us. But once the explosion occurs, we will no longer be able to ignore it: it will flare up as brightly as the Sun, even if it is located a thousand light years further than most stars visible to the naked eye on a clear night. Although the Earth's atmosphere protects us from destructive gamma rays, this protection comes at a high price. The powerful radioactive radiation released by these rays heats the atmosphere, creating nitrogen oxide, which will eventually destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere. And without the ozone layer, the ultraviolet rays of the Sun will irradiate the surface of the planet at full force. This, in turn, will lead to the widespread spread of skin cancer and, much worse, to the death of small plankton living in the ocean, which carry out photosynthesis, supply the atmosphere with oxygen and thus maintain trophic connections in our biological community. So far, all observed bursts of gamma radiation have occurred at a very large distance from the Earth: this indicates that such a phenomenon is quite rare. However, scientists still know so little about this phenomenon that it is almost impossible to determine the likelihood of such an explosion in the neighborhood of our galaxy.

Option 3. Vacuum collapse

In his book Cat's Cradle, writer Kurt Vonnegut used the idea of ​​a more stable form of water that remains a solid at room temperature. It is enough to “release” a little of this water - and all the water in the world can suddenly harden. Although this is just a satirical fiction, a sudden catastrophic change in the state of matter is quite real. According to the currently dominant cosmogonic theory, at the dawn of the universe, empty space was saturated with energy. This state, called a false vacuum, was very unstable. And a new, more stable form of vacuum that appeared replaced the previous one. This transformation released a huge amount of energy and caused the rapid expansion of space. It is likely that there is another, more stable form of vacuum. As the Universe expands and cools, bubbles of this new form of vacuum may already be appearing somewhere, spreading at about the speed of light. This process will lead to changes in the laws of physics, and a new energy explosion will blow everything into small pieces.

"It's certainly a nice story, but it's still unlikely," says Pie Hut of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. According to the scientist, he is more concerned about other threats that science considers much more likely. Such, for example, as black holes.

Option 4. Black holes

Our galaxy is full of black holes - collapsing stellar “corpses”, the diameter of which reaches 10-15 kilometers. How full? Sore point. This is not known to science for sure. After all, that's why they're called "black holes." The gravitational force of these holes is so strong that they literally absorb everything around them, even light that could help detect their presence. David Bennett of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, studied two such holes, observing how they distorted and amplified the light of ordinary, more distant stars. Based on similar studies, and more on theoretical calculations, scientists have come to the conclusion that there are approximately 10 million black holes in the Milky Way. These objects move like ordinary stars, and therefore, most likely, the probability that one of them is approaching us is relatively small. But if in the case of a normal star we will know about its approach for a long time, then with a black hole the situation is different. Decades before the encounter, astronomers should note slight changes in the orbits of other planets. As these changes increase, it will be possible to estimate the location and mass of the black hole. Moreover, in order for the end of the world to come, a black hole does not have to come close to the Earth: just the passage of a black hole through the Solar System will lead to a significant change in the orbits of all its planets. The Earth may begin to rotate in an ellipse, which will entail catastrophic climate change on the planet for earthlings. If the influence of the black hole turns out to be stronger, our planet may completely break away from solar orbit and go on endless wanderings through cold space.

Option 5. Giant solar flares

Solar flares, better known as massive coronal ejections, are giant magnetic explosions on the Sun that bombard the Earth with a rapid stream of subatomic particles. The Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field neutralize the potentially deadly effects of normal solar flares. However, by studying records of old astronomical observations, Bradley Schaefer of Yale University found evidence that some seemingly normal stars like our Sun sometimes light up much brighter than normal for short periods of time. Schaefer is convinced that the reason for this “blinking” of stars is the giant explosions occurring on these stars, millions of times more powerful than ordinary coronal ejections. A similar explosion on the Sun will fry the Earth in a few hours and begin to destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere (see option 2). Although there is no convincing evidence that our Sun is also subject to such unpleasant excesses, scientists still do not yet understand the nature of these giant flares, and therefore cannot accurately answer the question of whether something similar can happen on the Sun. Here we can add that destruction of the world can be brought not only by too high solar activity, but also by a lack of solar energy. Sally Belyounas of Harvard's Center for Astrophysics believes that many Sun-like stars occasionally experience fairly long periods of decreased activity, during which they dim by about 1%. At first glance, this may seem like a trifle, but even such a slight dimming of the Sun will lead to the onset of a new ice age on Earth. According to Beljunas, it was the decrease in solar activity that caused 17 of the 19 periods of global cooling on our planet that have occurred over the past 10 thousand years.

Option 6. Change in the Earth's magnetic field

Every few hundred thousand years, the Earth's magnetic field drops to almost zero. This continues for almost a hundred years, then the magnetic field gradually begins to recover, with the north and south poles changing places. The last time this happened was 780 thousand years ago, so it seems we can already talk about a “delay.” To make matters worse, the magnetic field has weakened by almost 5% in the last century. It would seem, what to worry about in our age, when the Global Navigation System has turned the compass into an unnecessary archaism? However, not everything is so simple: the magnetic field reflects streams of particles and rays sent by the Sun, as well as even more energetically charged streams of subatomic particles rushing to Earth from the depths of space. Without a magnetic field, these particles will fall onto the earth's atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer we have already mentioned (see option 5). In addition, many inhabitants of the Earth move using magnetic orientation. Therefore, a reversal of the poles can lead to a serious environmental disaster. True, there is one consolation. "Strangely, fossil studies don't support pole reversal," says Sten Odenwald, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Center. At the same time, many cataclysms of the past (like the Black Plague, which wiped out a quarter of the population of Europe) are also unlikely to have left a trace in the fossils.

Option 7. Volcanic lava eruptions

In 1783, the Laki volcano in Iceland erupted three cubic miles of lava. Lava, ash and fumes consumed 9 thousand people and 80% of the livestock. The famine that naturally followed destroyed a quarter of Iceland's population. Due to volcanic dust hanging in the air in the United States, just before it won its independence, the average winter temperature dropped by 9 degrees. But these are still flowers compared to what our Earth is generally capable of. 65 million years ago, a column of magma rising from the earth's mantle covered the area that is today India. The eruptions, repeated from century to century, brought to the surface about a quarter of a million cubic miles of lava (100 thousand times more than during the Laki eruption). Some scientists believe that the Indian eruption, and not the fall of an asteroid, was the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. An earlier and even more powerful eruption in the area of ​​​​what is now Siberia occurs precisely during the so-called “Permian-Triassic extinction event” - the most significant mass extinction of species known to paleontologists. During this period, 95% of all species inhabiting the planet died.

Sulfurous volcanic gases cause acid rain. Chlorine-containing components are another threat to the vulnerable ozone layer. In a word, there will be only poisons all around. Although eruptions cause one-time destruction, volcanoes also release carbon dioxide, which causes a long-term greenhouse effect. The last large eruption of basaltic rock occurred in what is now Columbia about 17 million years ago. Looking forward to the next one.

Option 8. Global epidemics

If the Earth itself does not bring us to the grave, then this is quite within the capabilities of our microscopic brothers. Although people have always coexisted relatively peacefully with microbes, sometimes the balance between them is still upset. Moreover, of course, it is not in favor of the person. In the 14th century, the Black Plague claimed the lives of every fourth inhabitant of Europe; between 1918 and 1919, influenza killed nearly 20 million people; Today, about the same number of people have died from AIDS, and it is still rampant. According to a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1980 and 1992 the number of deaths due to infectious diseases increased by 58%. Old diseases such as cholera or measles no longer respond to antibiotics. Intensive agricultural production and cultivation methods have brought humans closer to the microorganisms that transmit disease in animals. International travel is widely accessible, which allows germs to spread much faster than before. Infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm, who recently retired from the Minnesota Department of Health Services, says fighting the disease is "like trying to swim upstream on a fast-moving mountain river." The darkest prospect is the emergence of some kind of microbe that will spread so quickly that we will not be able to protect ourselves with the chemical defenses we have. And this is quite possible after we have thoroughly shaken the contents of the “ecological pot”. It is known that about 12 thousand years ago, most mammals became extinct on the American continent. Ross McPhee of the American Museum of Natural History argues that the cause of the mass extinction was a highly contagious disease brought by humans after their mass migration to the New World.

Human-caused disasters

Option 9. Global warming

The Earth is gradually becoming warmer, and scientists mostly agree that the reason for this is human activity. It is easy to understand that global warming can lead to flooding of cities and destruction of crops. Recent research (including, for example, recent research by Paul Epstein, a professor at Harvard University School of Medicine) has also shown that increasing average temperatures on the planet will contribute to the widespread spread of infectious diseases carried by heat-loving tropical microorganisms (see option 8). Diseases of cereal crops will also spread, which, coupled with significant climate changes, will lead to famine. But that's not all. Now atmospheric gases retain a sufficient amount of heat at the Earth's surface. However, even a slight increase in temperature will immediately cause a dramatic change in the temperature balance: water will evaporate faster, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gas, which will absorb more heat and contribute to the release of carbon dioxide from the stones. And this, in turn, will lead to an even greater increase in temperature. As a result, Earth could follow in the footsteps of Venus, where daytime temperatures typically reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Apparently, to start the uncontrolled process of turning the Earth into a huge greenhouse, a fairly significant increase in temperature is necessary. However, scientists cannot yet say where the critical point is, from which the warming process will become irreversible.

Option 10. Ecosystem collapse

Pictures of poached elephants and burning rainforests capture our idle attention, but the enormous problem of widespread loss of biodiversity, although less visible, is much more serious. Over billions of years of evolution, the world has acquired a form where the existence of every living organism is inextricably linked with the life activity of a huge number of other species. Confirmation can be found in studies conducted recently in Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior. During snowy winters, wolves prefer to hunt in large packs, which means they kill more moose. The elk population is declining, making it easier for young balsam fir trees to survive. Fir trees absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which, in turn, has a beneficial effect on the climate. In a word, everything is connected. The growing population on the planet is forcing us to clear forests for the construction of residential areas and agricultural land. The rich diversity of wild plants is being replaced by several species cultivated by humans. By moving animals and plants from one environment to another, inventing and using new chemical compounds, we inevitably change the world around us. Every year, under the influence of humans, 30 thousand species disappear from the face of the Earth. This means that we are experiencing one of the most significant periods of mass extinction of species in the history of the Earth. Stephen Kellert, a social ecologist at Yale University, believes that humans have many opportunities to upset the delicate balance of the world's ecology. According to the scientist, new diseases may arise as a result (see option 8). Human activities can also lead to the extinction of pollinating insects, for example, which will destroy many crops. As in the story on Isle Royale, the consequences can be completely unpredictable; for the time being, we may not even suspect what our intervention in the ecosystem entails. And when we suspect, it will be too late.

Option 11. Biotechnological disaster

While we contribute to the extinction of natural species, we simultaneously create new ones using genetic engineering. Genetically modified crops may taste better, be more nutritious and produce more consistently. Artificially bred microbes may help us solve some health problems. Finally, gene therapy promises to correct flaws in our DNA. However, all of the above also has a downside. Although there is no reliable evidence yet to prove that genetically modified foods are harmful, there are signs that genes from modified plants can transfer to other species. Genetic changes in plants can lead to the emergence of new pest species. Skeptical scientists like Jeremy Rifkin fear that the resulting superweeds and superparasites will ultimately destabilize an already shaky ecosystem (see option 9). Genetically altered microbes can suddenly run out of control. However, the most terrifying possibility is the deliberate misuse of biotechnology. A group of terrorists or even some nefarious state may find anthrax an ineffective weapon, and then they will decide to artificially cultivate, say, the Ebola virus. Well, now they have a great means to achieve their unattractive goals.

Option 12. Particle accelerator gone wild

Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the "Unabomber", became crazy because an experiment to accelerate elementary particles could cause a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world. Oddly enough, many sober physicists generally agree with him. As a rule, their concerns about this matter do not extend beyond private conversations over a glass of beer, but recently this issue was brought to the public for the first time. The London Sunday Times reported that a heavy ion acceleration facility on New York's Long Island could create a subatomic black hole that would gradually consume our entire planet. And even if not a black hole, then at least particles of altered matter, which, coming into contact with ordinary matter, will destroy it. To reassure worried New Yorkers living near the laboratory, its director held a conference during which both scenarios were criticized as unlikely. Just in case, the conference participants also dismissed the assumption that the reactor could initiate a process of phase transition to another form of vacuum (see option 3). These assurances were made quite in the spirit of the famous 1942 report entitled LA-602 . At one time, it was a secret document that explained why the explosion of the world's first atomic bomb could under no circumstances burn the Earth's atmosphere. At the same time, scientists from the Long Island Laboratory do not deny the theoretical possibility of the disasters mentioned above. They are only trying to prove that their structure is hopelessly short of the power that would be able to produce a black hole or destabilize a vacuum. Well, nothing prevents us from building a new accelerator, a more powerful one.

Option 13. Nanotechnological disaster

These days, a computer becomes obsolete before its keyboard even gets dirty. This happens mainly because microcircuits are literally becoming smaller and smaller every day. Approximately the same technology is used to create machines in a new field, already called "nanotechnology." In a few decades - and maybe even earlier - people will learn to make microscopic robots that can assemble and copy themselves. These robots will carry out complex operations while inside the human body, will be able to create any necessary product from simple primary raw materials, or explore other worlds. All this is great, if, of course, nanotechnology works exactly the way we want it to. Here we can recall the book “Tools of Creation,” a cult book among nanotechnologists, written by K. Eric Drexler, an employee of the Forsyth Institute. The author writes that if an industrial accident occurs, machines no larger than some bacteria “will scatter like pollen in the wind, multiply in the blink of an eye and turn our biosphere into dust in a matter of days.” And at the same time, Drexler is one of the apologists of nanotechnology. More pessimistic minds - for example, one of the founders of the company Sun Microsystems Bill Joy - believe that nanotechnology is an ideal weapon in the hands of the military or terrorists.

Option 14: Toxins in the environment

Modern history is replete with horrific examples of the dangers posed by industrial pollution. There are plenty of examples - from Donora (Pennsylvania) to Bhopal, India. The poisoning, meanwhile, continues quietly. In major cities around the world, the air is saturated with diesel particles, which the National Institutes of Health considers a carcinogen. Heavy metals that enter the atmosphere along with industrial emissions circulate throughout the world, settling even on the virgin snows of Antarctica. The intensive use of pesticides in agriculture ensures that they end up in rivers and lakes. In large doses, dioxin disrupts the development of the embryo and weakens reproductive function. And dioxins surround us everywhere. In the house where you live, the pipes, wallpaper and exterior cladding are made of polyvinyl chloride, which releases dioxin when it comes into contact with fire. We are often at risk without knowing it. Every year, the National Institutes of Health adds to its list of cancer-causing substances. Today there are already 218 such substances. Theo Colburn of the World Wildlife Fund believes that dioxins and other chlorine-containing substances can so effectively mimic the effects of human hormones that they can significantly reduce people's ability to reproduce. Many scientists dispute this claim, but it is clear that our own chemical waste can become a threat to life over time.

Voluntary self-destruction

Option 15. World War

The United States and Russia still have nearly 19,000 combat-ready nuclear warheads in their arsenals. Today a nuclear war seems unlikely, but 15 years ago the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed completely incredible. The political situation changes, but bombs invariably retain their destructive power. There is always the possibility of an accidental rocket launch. As for the missile defense system, in its current form it can “catch” only a few missiles. If, of course, it works at all. Other types of weapons of mass destruction also pose a threat on a global scale. Japan began experimenting with the creation of biological weapons after the First World War. During the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United States experimented with killer microbes. Biological weapons, compared to nuclear weapons, are much cheaper, easier to manufacture and easier to hide. Its production is much more difficult to control, which, of course, plays into the hands of terrorist organizations. John Leslie, a philosopher at the University of Guelph in Ontario, believes that the current level of development of genetic engineering allows the creation of "ethnic" biological weapons, developed specifically to destroy any one ethnic group (see option 11).

Option 16. Robots will subjugate people

People will create robots, which will then rebel and take over the world. Boring green. We have seen all this in movies, on TV and read in science fiction books for decades. And what? In all these years, not a single smart robot has appeared. But Hans Moravec, co-founder of the robotics department at Carnegie Mellon University, remains optimistic. In 2040, the scientist predicts, machines will have human intelligence, and perhaps even human consciousness. Or maybe they will be even more perfect. Moravec believes in the coming symbiosis of machine and man: they must merge to form a “post-biological being” capable of developing its intelligence to the highest level. Marvin Minsky, an artificial intelligence specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also envisions something similar: a person, Minsky believes, will be able to upload his brain into a computer-equipped mechanical surrogate and thus gain access to virtually limitless information resources. Moreover, according to the scientist’s prediction, this should happen in just a couple of years. Whether such a scenario can be considered the death of humanity or simply a transition to a new stage of development depends on your point of view. Minsky's reasoning may sound quite familiar. When the first computers capable of creating virtual reality appeared on the market in 1989, journalists immediately dubbed them “electronic LSD,” after falling into the depths of which a person may never return. Sociologists have made irritated statements that our culture - and perhaps the species homo sapiens itself - will soon disappear from the face of the Earth. As can be seen from the above, technology has advanced greatly since then.

Option 17. Mass insanity

While people's physical health has improved on average over the past century, their mental health has undoubtedly worsened. The World Health Organization estimates that 500 million people worldwide suffer from mental disorders. It seems that by 2020, depression will become the second most common cause of death or disability after cardiovascular diseases. Increasing life expectancy only aggravates our mental problems: a person has more time to feel all the loneliness and powerlessness of old age. According to statistics, Americans over the age of 65 commit suicide more often than other groups of the population. Gregory Stock, a biophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that science will soon allow us to live to two hundred years or more. If such a life expectancy becomes commonplace, it will be a severe social and psychological test for humans. After all, the impressions accumulated over 200 years are likely to overload the human brain and lead to the emergence of a new form of madness. Or they will serve as an impetus for the creation of various kinds of eschatological cults seeking to put an end to this eternal life. Most likely, the current tendency of old people to depression and suicide will only grow stronger over the years. On the other hand, one of the possible solutions to the problem of mental disorders - the use of psychotropic drugs like Prozac - may lead us to an unknown point. Scientists do not yet have reliable information about the long-term effects of using such drugs.

A higher power directed against us

Option 18. Alien invasion

At the Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations in Mountain View, California, a group of dedicated scientists carefully sift through numerous radio signals in search of an alien voice. Nothing yet. And suddenly - imagine: the long-awaited signal is finally received. Brothers in mind not only exist, but also intend to stay with us. And then... Any science fiction fan will tell you what bad things can happen then. But, as the history of mankind shows, the main danger lies not even in the possibility of direct conflict with aliens. They simply may need the natural resources of our solar system (for example, Earth's hydrogen-rich oceans will be useful for refueling alien spacecraft). And then the aliens can simply wipe us off the face of the Earth if we get in their way. Much the same way we deal with mosquitoes that prevent us from developing tropical forests. On the other hand, aliens may accidentally bring to us some parasites that are hungry for human flesh, just as the Dutch colonialists once brought cats, rats and pigs to the island of Mauritius, which quickly dealt with the dodo bird, now a fossil. Physicist Gerard O'Neill believes that contact with an extraterrestrial civilization could be socially destructive. “Advanced Western civilization had a destructive impact on all, without exception, primitive civilizations with which it came into contact. This happened even in cases where, it would seem, all measures were taken to preserve and protect these civilizations,” the scientist said in his interview in 1979 - and I see no reason why we ourselves cannot find ourselves in a similar situation . "

Option 19. Divine Intervention

The Jews have the book of the prophet Daniel, the Christians have the book of Revelation, the Muslims have the idea of ​​the coming of the Mahdi, the Zoroastrians expect the appearance of the third son of Zarathustra. In short, there are many different options and interpretations, but the meaning is the same: the Lord will intervene and put an end to history, ushering in the beginning of a new order. Apocalyptic predictions have accompanied human culture throughout its history - from Egyptian mythology to the modern "2000 bug" mania. For the atheists, however, more troubling is the prospect of the emergence of an increasing number of apocalyptic cults who intend to take the mission of divine retribution into their own hands. In 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect released nerve gas into the Tokyo subway tunnels, killing 12 and injuring more than 5 thousand people. And if the plans of the sect leaders had been completely successful, there could have been several hundred times more victims. Who knows what a more trained group, armed with more modern means of mass destruction (for example, nuclear, biological or, eventually, nanotechnological weapons) could achieve.

Option 20. Our life is someone’s dream

Perhaps we lead a ghostly existence and the world around us is only pretending to be real? This philosophical postulate, as old as time, is still relevant in our culture. Take the novels of William Burroughs or the cinematic flirtations with reality of the creators of The Matrix. Meanwhile, some scientists see here an analogy with the collapse of the vacuum. Just as the void we know may not actually be a true, stable form of vacuum, so what we call reality may not actually be a true, stable form of existence. In the 4th century BC, the Taoist philosopher Zhuang Tzu put all this into poetic form by describing his dream. In it, he was a butterfly who did not realize that in fact she was a person. Waking up, the philosopher asked himself: “Who am I—Zhuang Tzu, who dreamed that he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who dreams that he was Chuang Tzu?”

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Translated by Ilya Kun