Audiobook8 hours
The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans—and Other Possible Phenomena
Written by Mike Pearl
Narrated by Mike Pearl
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
From a VICE magazine columnist, “a deeply entertaining—if occasionally horrifying” (Joshua Piven, coauthor of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook) look at how humanity is likely to weather such happenings as nuclear war, a global internet collapse, antibiotics shortages, and even immortality.
If you live on planet Earth you’re probably scared of the future. How could you not be? Some of the world’s most stable democracies are looking pretty shaky. Technology is invading personal relationships and taking over jobs. Relations among the three superpowers—the US, China, and Russia—are growing more complicated and dangerous. A person watching the news has to wonder: is it safe to go out there or not?
Taking inspiration from his virally popular VICE column “How Scared Should I Be?,” Mike Pearl games out many of the “could it really happen?” scenarios we’ve all speculated about, assigning a probability rating, and taking us through how it would unfold. He explores what would likely occur in dozens of possible scenarios—among them the final failure of antibiotics, the loss of the world’s marine life, a complete ban on guns in the US, and even contact with extraterrestrial life—and reports back from the future, providing a clear picture of how the world would look, feel, and even smell in each of these instances.
For fans of such bestsellers as What If? and The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook, The Day It Finally Happens is about taking future events that we don’t really understand and getting to know them in close detail. Pearl’s “well-researched speculations induce daydreams and nightmares and mark [him] as one of his generation’s most interesting writers” (Alec Ross, New York Times bestselling author).
If you live on planet Earth you’re probably scared of the future. How could you not be? Some of the world’s most stable democracies are looking pretty shaky. Technology is invading personal relationships and taking over jobs. Relations among the three superpowers—the US, China, and Russia—are growing more complicated and dangerous. A person watching the news has to wonder: is it safe to go out there or not?
Taking inspiration from his virally popular VICE column “How Scared Should I Be?,” Mike Pearl games out many of the “could it really happen?” scenarios we’ve all speculated about, assigning a probability rating, and taking us through how it would unfold. He explores what would likely occur in dozens of possible scenarios—among them the final failure of antibiotics, the loss of the world’s marine life, a complete ban on guns in the US, and even contact with extraterrestrial life—and reports back from the future, providing a clear picture of how the world would look, feel, and even smell in each of these instances.
For fans of such bestsellers as What If? and The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook, The Day It Finally Happens is about taking future events that we don’t really understand and getting to know them in close detail. Pearl’s “well-researched speculations induce daydreams and nightmares and mark [him] as one of his generation’s most interesting writers” (Alec Ross, New York Times bestselling author).
Author
Mike Pearl
Mike Pearl is a Webby Award–winning journalist whose writing has appeared in The Awl, The Hollywood Reporter, Grist, and Death and Taxes, and his columns “How Scared Should I Be?,” “Climate 2050 Predictions,” and “Hours and Minutes” have been featured in VICE. A graduate of Chapman University, he is based in Los Angeles, California. The Day It Finally Happens is his first book.
Related to The Day It Finally Happens
Related audiobooks
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuff They Don't Want You to Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The UFO Hotspot Compendium: All the Places to Visit Before You Die or Are Abducted Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Contact Paradox: Challenging our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside the Real Area 51: The Secret History of Wright Patterson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Space Is Cool as F*ck Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Did That? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire in the Sky: Cosmic Collisions, Killer Asteroids, and the Race to Defend Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5AsapSCIENCE: Answers to the World's Weirdest Questions, Most Persistent Rumors, and Unexplained Phenomena Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big 100 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNERVE: Adventures in the Science of Fear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Alien Perspective: A New View of Humanity and the Cosmos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Science Fiction: The Influence of Film and Fiction on the Science and Culture of Our Times Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5CERN and the Higgs Boson: The Global Quest for the Building Blocks of Reality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe One Thing You Need to Know: The Simple Way to Understand the Most Important Ideas in Science Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lie About the Truck: Survivor, Reality TV, and the Endless Gaze Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp Through Civilization's Best Bits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Exoplanets Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astrobiology: The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Popular Culture & Media Studies For You
My Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 50th Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Psychology of Zelda: Linking Our World to the Legend of Zelda Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Predictably Irrational Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Finally Bought Some Jordans: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Travelled Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Day It Finally Happens
Rating: 3.499999975 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
12 ratings0 reviews