CONTENTS

Preface	vii
INTRODUCTION	1
1  DEEP IN THE ANTHROPOCENE	11
1.1. Perils and Prospects	11
1.2. Nuclear Threats	17
1.3. Eco-Threats and Tipping Points	21
1.4. Staying within Planetary Boundaries	31
1.5. Climate Change	37
1.6. Clean Energy—and a ‘Plan B’?	44
2  HUMANITY’S FUTURE ON EARTH	61
2.1. Biotech	61
2.2. Cybertechnology, Robotics, and AI	83
2.3. What about Our Jobs?	90
2.4. Human-Level Intelligence?	102
2.5. Truly Existential Risks?	108
3  HUMANITY IN A COSMIC PERSPECTIVE	120
3.1. The Earth in a Cosmic Context	120
3.2. Beyond Our Solar System	129
3.3. Spaceflight—Manned and Unmanned	137
3.4. Towards a Post-Human Era?	150
3.5. Alien Intelligence?	154
4  THE LIMITS AND FUTURE OF SCIENCE	165
4.1. From the Simple to the Complex	165
4.2. Making Sense of Our Complex World	170
4.3. How Far Does Physical Reality Extend?	177
4.4. Will Science ‘Hit the Buffers’?	189
4.5. What about God?	194
5  CONCLUSIONS	201
5.1. Doing Science	201
5.2. Science in Society	213
5.3. Shared Hopes and Fears	221
Notes	229
Index	237