Living Dangerously

Description

Why understanding the numbers behind our personal and collective decisions is essential to surviving in a complex world.. From cholesterol to cancer, asteroids to AIDS, we face more risks than our grandparents ever dreamed of. But most of us are 200 years behind the curve when it comes to making intelligent risk-based decisions: We refuse to fly, but dont wear seat belts in our far more dangerous cars. We panic about toxic waste dumps, but collectively smoke a billion cigarettes a year. In this entertaining and enlightening look at risk in the modern age, John Ross argues that the burgeoning science of risk assessment has given us powerful new tools to cope in a complex world, if we could only learn how to speak the language. Ross examines the building blocks of this new language, and helps us identify and relinquish long-held, often pre-set, biological and psychological responses to risk. Through vivid stories and compelling science, Ross empowers us to take control of our lives and to exercise our most basic democratic freedomthe power to make our own decisionsboth as individuals and as a society.

John F. Ross is a senior editor and writer for Smithsonian magazine. He contributes frequently to The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.