Doomsday Clock Nears Midnight As Humanity Continues To Wing It

What Is The Doomsday Clock?

Created and maintained since 1947, the infamous Doomsday Clock is used to estimate the chance of global catastrophe. Used in a symbolic way, the Doomsday Clock is a mechanism to gauge threats created from unchecked scientific and technological advances and/or improvements. That's right, the AI app you love to depend on so much is actually a major force in the movement of the clock. Each January, the non-profit group Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reviews contributing factors and determines if the hypothetical clock should be turned back or moved forward. Midnight on the clock represents a global catastrophe. The number of minutes and/or seconds to midnight represents how close the world is to, for lack of better terms, zero. Primary contributing factors to the movement of the clock are nuclear warfare or the chance of nuclear warfare, climate change, and artificial intelligence. The aforementioned Bulletin reviews new developments in each area and their impact on inflicting unavoidable harm to humanity.

History Of The Doomsday Clock

The clock was launched in 1947 with a setting of seven minutes to midnight. Since then, it has been set backwards eight times and forward 18 times. The farthest we've been from midnight was in 1991 at 17 minutes. The closest to midnight shouldn't surprise you, which is now, with the most recent update of 85 seconds to midnight. Check out the full press release and in-depth details of the decision on the official Doomsday Clock website.  Here's what the Bulletin had to say about this year's update:

"A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks. Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe."

Get our free mobile app