Future Perfect What next? And other impossible questions

Postscript

A few years ago, I wrote a short book entitled Our Final Century. I guessed that, taking all risks into account, there was only a 50 per cent chance that civilization would get through to 2100 without a disastrous setback. This seemed to me a far from cheerful conclusion. However, I was surprised by the way my colleagues reacted to the book: many thought a catastrophe was even more likely than I did, and regarded me as an optimist.

I stand by this optimism.

– Lord (Martin) Rees, President of the Royal Society of London,

Master of Trinity College, Cambridge