Opinion: Are technological societies suicidal?
APR 14, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024244
NPR : Astrophysicist Adam Frank asks:
The Babylonians didn’t do it. The Romans didn’t do it. The Chinese of the Tang Dynasty didn’t do it. The Persian Empire didn’t do it. For 50,000 years of human cultural evolution it didn’t happen. For 6,000 years of civilization it didn’t happen.Then, in the space of a mere hundred years, we manifest pathways to utter ruin not once but twice. We have managed to put the entire project of civilization up for grabs first through nuclear arms and then through the twin perils of climate change and resource depletion.How did this happen?
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
