‘How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction’ with Thomas Moynihan & Lisa Doeland 

From disastrous climate change to evil AI superintelligences and the impending perils of genome editing, our species is increasingly concerned with the prospects of its own extinction. Less and less does the end of humanity’s future on this planet seem an area of lurid fantasy or remote speculation.  But how did this come about? When did our obsession about the end start? And what does tracing back this history teach us about our current predicament?

And that realizing that we might disappear and the physical universe could continue without us, is one of the most important discoveries humans have ever made. In her recent book Apocalypsophy, Dutch philosopher Lisa Doeland claims that the extinction of humanity is not just imminent, but that it has already started, and that there is little point in denying that. Renowned historian Thomas Moynihan (Cambridge University) shows our growing concerns with human extinction are the continuation of a project initiated over two centuries ago. 

This event is a collaboration with AIR – Architecture Institute Rotterdam and part of the Rotterdam Architecture Month.