The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans - And Other Possible Phenomena

Description

__________ If you live on planet Earth, you're probably scared about the future. Terrorism, complicated international relations, global warming, killer viruses and a raft of other issues make it hard not to be. Watching the news you have to wonder: is it safe to go out there or not? In The Day It Finally Happens, Mike Pearl games out many of the 'could it really happen?' scenarios we've all speculated about, assigning a probability rating, and taking us through how it would unfold. He explores what would likely occur in dozens of possible scenarios - the final failure of antibiotics, the loss of the world's marine life, the abolition of the British monarchy, and even the arrival of aliens - and reports back from the future, providing a clear picture on how the world would look, feel, and even smell in each of these instances. Hilarious, enlightening, and terrifying, this book makes science accessible and is a unique form of existential therapy, offering practical answers to some of our most worrisome questions. Thankfully, the odds of humanity pulling through look pretty good. __________ For fans of such bestsellers as What If?,The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook and The Uninhabitable Earth, as well as Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell, this is a book about future events that we don't really understand and getting to know them in close detail. Entertaining speculation featuring both authoritative research and a bit of mischief: a look at how humanity is likely to weather such happenings as the day nuclear war occurs, the day the global internet goes down, the day we run out of effective antibiotics, and the day immortality is achieved.

Mike Pearl is a journalist, author and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. He's been published in The Hollywood Reporter, The Awl, Grist, Death and Taxes, VICE's website and magazine, and VICE Motherboard's science fiction outlet known as Terraform. Pearl has found a niche as an investigator of the seemingly absurd. His column "How Scared Should I Be?" attempted to quantify the scariness of the world's anxiety-inducing topics, like North Korea, gun ownership, the zika virus, and getting punched in the face. His second column, "Hours and Minutes" delved into the immediate implications of geopolitical meltdowns and war scenarios. Entires in both columns frequently attracted millions of readers. The Day It Finally Happens is Pearl's first book.

Brilliantly anxiety affirming...Thanks to Mike Pearl, I can now claim my constant feeling of dread is based on expert interviews and careful scientific research. * Zach Weinersmith, coauthor of Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything * A deeply entertaining-if occasionally horrifying-imagining of a world where the unlikely has become the reality. * Joshua Piven, author of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook * The Day It Finally Happens got my brain buzzing with stories that bring together fantasy and reality. The well-researched speculations induce daydreams and nightmares and mark Mike Pearl as one of his generation's most interesting writers. * Alec Ross, New York Times bestselling author of The Industries of the Future * In his fascinating book The Day It Finally Happens journalist Mike Pearl, who admits almost gleefully that he suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and extended stretches of panic, imagines the future and is shocked by what he foresees. Think Woody Allen meets Alvin Toffler. Just as Toffler's Future Shock set a standard for crystal ball gazing decades ago, Pearl's mighty oak of a book gives us a sobering, and at times humorous, assessment of what's on today's horizon. When you present a litany of dire statistics, as Pearl often does, it's wise to preserve a sense of humor. Pearl has that in abundance. He's a funny guy, but with a serious side. I came away from The Day It Finally Happens bubbling with new information, and hopeful-but not certain-of a better future. * Charles Panati, author of Panati's Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody * The Day It Finally Happens is unlike anything I've ever read. It's a bit like losing yourself in a thrumming kaleidoscope of our favorite hypothetical futures, which range from looming hellscapes to our most durable dreams-but you'll be surprisingly well-informed when you finally come to in the present. Sharp, comic, blunt, and justifiably anxious, Pearl is the ideal tour guide to what lies ahead. You'll probably find yourself, as I did, flipping to the next scenario, and the next, long past any sane hour of the night. Pearl's investigations into the worlds of tomorrow are never anything less than engrossing. * Brian Merchant, bestselling author of The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone * Alternately reassuring and hair-raising, The Day It Finally Happens uncovers surprising answers to all those 'What if?' questions that keep us up at night. It's like peering through a crack in time at what lies ahead and feeling yourself unable to take your eyes away. Trust Mike Pearl to be your intrepid guide to the future. * David Feldman, author of Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and Why Do Fish Sleep? * I was floored by the detail in this survey of looming doom. Whether you intend to survive the cataclysm or merely drown passively in a tsunami of fire you should be versed in every one of these scenarios. Remember to keep a small bag packed! * John Roderick, host of the Omnibus Project Podcast, an apocalypse primer *