Eternity

It has become received wisdom that our world is doomed, that we live in the End of Days. Bleak predictions by psychics and scientists alike portend extreme weather, droughts, famines and floods that will overtake humanity within the century, or sooner. If not global warming, then supervolcanoes, meteoric impacts, nuclear war, bioterrorism, or natural plagues will get us. But whatever happens, Michael Hanlon believes that humankind will go on...and on. The shape of things to come will be strange, and somewhat terrifying, but will very likely seem banal to the people who inhabit it in the future. Humankind may be thrown back to the Stone Age on hundreds of occasions and may come close to extinction. But recovery will follow--each time more rapidly than the last. The world of 10,000 years hence, let alone 100,000,000 years hence, will be strange and almost unrecognizable. But no matter how battered and re-born, it will still be our world, populated by us through eternity. 

About the Author(s)

Michael Hanlon

Michael Hanlon is one of Britain’s most successful science writers. He has been Science Editor at the Daily Mail for many years; prior to this he was at the Daily Express, the Independent and Irish News. He contributes regularly to magazines such as the Spectator and appears on TV and radio as a science pundit. He has headlined several science festivals and written three critically acclaimed popular science books before this one: The Science Of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (Macmillan, 2005), The Real Mars (Constable, 2004) and The Worlds of Galileo (Constable, 2001).