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The weekend is almost here! Prepare for it by considering the fact that the only thing protecting you from a planet-killer, a major extinction event, or a catastrophic disruption of civilzation is statistics.
Which is to say that the odds of such an event happening during your lifetime are vanishingly small. But the chance that it'll happen tomorrow are absolutely identical to that of any other day it might occur.
But this much is certain: It'll happen again.
Here to give a more balanced look at the issue is Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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1 comment:
I love the troubling thought that 'statistics' are the only thing protecting us from such an extinction event, considering how pale they are in comparison with unfolding actualities.
Does this imply we are doomed, then? Certainly. Yet what delicious recompense there is in the thought (as you mentioned) that such a devastating occurrence as the complete washout of life on earth is as likely to occur today as it is in 100, 1,000, or 10,000 or more years.
The paradox of our existence...how is it sustained, I ask? It's a heart-rendingly beautiful mystery...and I'm happy to have discovered this old blog of yours, Michael.
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