Scholars Mind

The Doomsday Clock

Someday there may be nobody left to lead. Consider the Doomsday Clock, which tries to measure how close we are to the end of human civilization. Discuss with your team: how accurate do you think it is, and in what ways, if any, is it a helpful tool?

Ninety seconds to midnight. That is the time humanity was given in 2023 — the closest the hands have ever pointed, on a clock whose 'midnight' is the end of civilization.

Key concepts

Alarm Fatigue
When a warning is pinned at maximum for too long, people stop reacting to it — the danger stops registering. A siren that never stops becomes background noise, so a permanently near-'midnight' clock risks numbing the very public it means to jolt.

Every work — at a glance

  • The Science and Security Board — Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (institution)

    The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists panel that sets the Doomsday Clock each January, folding a year of global risks into one time.

+ 2 more works explained inside

What to know

  1. 01
    How accurate is the clock? It isn't — and accuracy was never its job. Its 'time' distills expert opinion into one dramatic image, built to be FELT, not read like a thermometer; asking whether 'ninety seconds' is literally true mistakes a communication device for a forecast.

+ 1 more insight inside

Across subjects

History puts the clock in old company: societies have long invented rituals to face collective death — medieval towns rang bells against the plague, Cold War

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Is a single dramatic number the right way to carry a warning this large? One side says only a gut-level image cuts through — a risk report no one reads saves no one. The other says one melodramatic figure crowds out the patient, specific action survival actually needs.

Practice — a sample

SOCA throbber says only that the computer is alive. The clock has sat near midnight for years; the MOST likely result is —

  • A The public going numb
  • B The board splitting
  • C Arms being cut
  • D The press reporting yearly
  • E The clock being redrawn

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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