There appears to be a micro-trend emerging in the book world regarding pessimism about humanity’s future. Sure, there have always been doomsday predictions by cranks and charlatans looking for some attention and a fast buck. But within the past two years, three respected authors have published titles that question whether civilization can overcome the negative trends that appear to threaten continued progress. Each of them basically brings it down to a coin-toss; 50-50 odds against some kind of collapse during the 21st Century that will return us to the Dark Ages, if not to outright extinction.

You can probably guess what worries these folk. The usual suspects: pollution, overpopulation, unfair distribution of wealth and power, the collapse of the family, terrorism, climate change, an “I don’t care” attitude on the part of the well-off, species extinction, etc. But there are also some exotic fears too, including the gray-goo scenario from nanotechnology and the runaway negative-strangelet scenario from heavy-ion research. Interestingly, this renewed doomsday pondering is happening despite the end of the Cold War and the unlikeliness of an all-out nuclear war between the United States and Russia. I still remember a pop hit song from the 60s inspired by that fear, i.e. “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire (who turned out to be a one-hit wonder; not much to sing about after you’ve blow up the world). And then of course there were the nuclear movies, including Doctor Strangelove and Fail Safe.

Well, the big nuclear war never came (although some say that we are now in more danger of seeing a city nuked, due to terrorism and proliferation to smaller countries such as Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, maybe Iran too). But hey, you can only get away with de-bunking the pessimists for so long. Sooner or later, one of their concerns is going to come true (though perhaps not exactly as they might have anticipated). So, if you’re in a pessimistic mood and want to catch up on some of today’s bigger problems, here are three respected authors and their recent works:

1.) Sir Martin Rees (British Royal Astronomer), “Our Final Hour”

2.) Jane Jacobs (noted urbanologist and social observer), “Dark Age Ahead”

3.) Edward O. Wilson (Harvard biologist), “The Future of Life”.

Enjoy!