Overview

A superbly written work of narrative non-fiction by an exciting new talent, The Anti-Catastrophe League is a brilliant study of the people and their teams who are trying to save the world. Our species has a unique genius for self-imperilment. The ancient dangers – asteroids, super-volcanoes and worse – still stalk us, but the most pressing time-bombs are of our own making. Our knack for self-imperilment, though, is one side of a coin: for we are also developing a knack for ambitious solutions. The Anti-Catastrophe League, informed by the author’s experience of working in the field of what is known as existential risk, tells the story of a species that is working out how to defuse several bombs at once. From ancient risks to very modern apocalypses, the book charts the imminent dangers to the human race and introduces readers to the groups of scientists, eccentrics, diplomats and visionaries who are doing everything in their considerable power to prevent the worst from befalling us. On the way we meet AI mind readers, an economist from ALLFED (the Alliance to Feed Earth in Disasters), a physicist trying to evade death, a physicist who, having lost his best friend to a hospital superbug, invented a lightbulb that kills germs in mid-air, and the man tasked with tracking down and rounding up all of the USSR’s biological and nuclear weapons – amongst many, many others. An imperious work of narrative non-fiction by an exciting new talent – and with echoes of Jon Ronson, Dan Schreiber and The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman – The Anti-Catastrophe League is a fascinating story of the end of the world – and what we can do about it.

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9780008722357

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Tom Ough has worked at The Telegraph and The Times and was one of the first British journalists to write about the threat of AI in 2016. Since the pandemic he has focussed on the greatest threats facing humanity and is embedded in this field of existential risk. In 2022 he left The Telegraph and has worked for a philanthropic advice organisation whose goal is to find and fund the best solutions to the most severe problems. He remains optimistic.

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