Doomsday Clock reset? This sure made my day!

The Doomsday Clock - that cheerful metaphor for the end of the world - has just been reset, and I'm sure you'll be buoyed to learn that it's now 90 seconds to the end of life as we know it. 

Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. (Source: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)

The Clock, which started out at 7 minutes to midnight back in 1947, is adjusted every January. Sometimes it's set backward. Sometimes it's set forward. Sometimes it stays the same. 

The best year ever was 1991, when, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was set to 17 minutes before midnight. Now, it's the worst ever. 

The decision to nudge the Clock forward from the 100 seconds to midnight setting that held from 2020 through 2022 was based primarily (but not entirely) on the war in Ukraine. Thanks, Putin. (Thanks, Soviet Union by any other name.)

The scientists behind the Doomsday Clock use it to alert humanity to threats from within — the perils we face from our own technologies, particularly through nuclear war, global climate change and biotechnology.

Of the new update, Mary Robinson, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: "The Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice. But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and livable planet." (Source: NPR)

Nuclear war. Global climate change. Biotechnology.

The only doom-and-gloom item missing is the singularity, when AI and robotics will outsmart humankind and take control. (Come to think of it, that might be a good thing.)

Well, ugh, ugh, ugh.

When I was born, in 1949, the Doomsday Clock had already been moved ahead 4 minutes, from 7 to 3 minutes to midnight. That's because, in 1949, the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb. Welcome to the nuclear arms race, kids.

So I grew up living with the threat of nuclear annihilation. There were CONALRAD alerts, which periodically buzzed on radio and TV to make sure that, if we were being attacked, the information system would work. We saw little yellow and black signs indicating that the building sporting one was a place where you could take shelter - hah! - in case the big one dropped on Worcester. In school, we had fire drills and bomb drills. For fire drills, we walked out into the schoolyard. For bomb drills, we stuck our heads under our desks. (That'll work!)

We breezily sang a parody of the Pepsodent toothpaste jingle. Forget "You'll wonder where the yellow went/when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent." For fifties kids it was:

You'll wonder where you teeth have gone
When you brush your teeth with the atom bomb.

Then came the Cuban missile crisis, which scared everyone. 

And then, gradually, the threat of nuclear annihilation seemed to diminish somewhat. It looked for a while that we were almost going to give peace a chance. 

Then the threat of climate disaster sort of nudged nuclear worries aside.

Now, it's all that and the bag of chips that is biotechnology. (I'm thinking that, with covid, we ain't seen nothing yet.)

Don't know about you, but I'm just thrilled to inching further onto "doom's doorstep."

Guess I'll have to finish that novel sooner rather than later. 

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Attribution for the image:  By RicHard-59 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128093264