Publisher's Synopsis
Knowledge is power.
Advancements in science have brought immense benefits, vast damages, and chilling perils.
Indeed, the modern scientific civilization has repeatedly endangered its own survival.
That is no longer a sensation.
Today's school children, well aware of the doomsday clock, casually cite a long list of terminal threats:
Nuclear weapons, fossil fuel engines, self-replicating robots, uncontrolled AI, engineered pathogens, and so forth.
On that tense background, this book offers a brief investigation that focuses on disturbing questions:
Is any scientific discovery potentially hazardous?
Is our current risk of extinction at least 50%?
Do apocalyptic scenarios tend to increase?
Is something wrong with the ethics of science?
Have scientists created new problems that are far more severe than the old problems they had solved?
Do scientists regularly exaggerate the positive and downplay the negative impacts of their endeavors?
Have scientists neglected to reassess their fundamental assumptions and objectives?
Do hazardous scientific ventures commonly skip a risk assessment test?
Is the public's view of science routinely manipulated?
Could risking humanity yield high rewards?
