Doomsday for the 21st century: no more killer cockroaches from outer space?(The Center Spread) From: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | Date: January 1, 2004 | COPYRIGHT 2004 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

THE CENTURY OPENED WITH BILL JOY'S APRIL 2000 Wired article, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," which predicted human annihilation through nanotechnology, and an Australian team's invention of a 100 percent lethal mousepox virus. (Doomsday for mice if not for man?) Meanwhile, old Doomsday scenarios are being dusted off and made new, buffed up for twenty first-century consumption. Everybody's doing it--Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees in his much-ballyhooed book, Out" Final Hour, and...