The Doomsday Clock remains stopped and, as in January 2023, continues to show 90 seconds to midnight: this is the minimum distance to a global catastrophe, reached for the first time last year and now confirmed by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the organization of atomic physicists founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein founded and has been marking the time until a planetary catastrophe since 1947. The physicists note that it is “a moment of historical danger.” “Threatening trends continue to push the world toward global catastrophe,” they say, referring primarily to the war in Ukraine and the threat of an escalation in nuclear risk.
“China, Russia and the United States are spending significant sums to expand and modernize their nuclear arsenals, exacerbating the ever-present threat of nuclear war due to errors or miscalculations.” Nuclear physicists point to the war in Gaza and point out that This “has the potential to escalate into a broader conflict in the Middle East, which could pose unforeseeable threats regionally and globally.” In addition to wars, the climate crisis is also regulating the hands of the apocalypse clock: 2023 is the hottest year on record and “marked the entry into new territory”.
We also look with concern at the “rapid and worrying developments in the life sciences, such as “the increasingly sophisticated technologies of genetic engineering” and the possibility that these could be combined with “the emerging tools of artificial intelligence”, with the risk of ” incorrect uses”. In general, physicists note that “other disruptive technologies have accelerated while governments have made only weak efforts to control them,” pointing in particular to the great development of artificial intelligence with “the acceleration of its use in the world noted that “many countries are recognizing the importance of regulating AI and are taking steps to reduce the risk of harm.” In recent years, it was the war in Ukraine that pushed the hands of the clock from 2 minutes at midnight in 2019 to 100 seconds in 2022, up to 90 in 2023.
The decision to stop the clock was made, say physicists at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “because humanity continues to face unprecedented levels of danger. Our decision should not be interpreted as a signal that the international security situation has eased”: it would instead be “a stark warning” and a reminder to respond urgently “as if today were the most dangerous moment in modern history.” They point out that the clock could also go from midnight. At the moment, however, a scenario like that of 1991 seems far away, when the hands moved to 17 minutes to midnight, 10 minutes more than 1947, the date of birth of the Doomsday Clock: a record that has never been reached since. Of the 25 updates so far, the hands have moved back eight times and forward 17 times.
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