The common conception of a technologically enabled apocalypse foresees a powerful artificial intelligence that, either deliberately or by accident, destroys human civilization. But as a new report from the RAND Corporation points out, the reality may be far subtler: As AI slowly erodes the foundations that made the…
Just in case you had trouble sleeping after Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump traded threats about each ruler’s “nuclear button,” the North Korean supreme leader also said something uncharacteristically optimistic in his New Year’s Day speech. Kim expressed hope for a “peaceful resolution” to the half-century-old conflict…
With a top Senate Republican warning that US leadership is edging us toward World War III, it’ll bring no one comfort to learn South Korean authorities believe that hackers working for the government of North Korea managed to steal highly-classified documents that included wartime contingency plans that were drawn up…
Has it ever been this depressing to pay attention to world events than it is right now? Well, what about when we believed we’d soon be in a full-scale nuclear war? The utter devastation of the Cold War erupting into a hot one was the basic premise of The Day After, a 1983 made-for-TV movie helmed by Wrath of Kahn …
Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi’s has chosen his next project: an adaptation of George Friedman’s best-selling nonfiction book The Next 100 Years, which posits where the world may head over the next century. The movie version will be titled World War III, so suffice it to say we’re apparently not heading for a happy…
And Jennifer Lawrence says she would be open to returning as Mystique in future X-Men films. Daniel Craig denies a Force Awakens cameo. Plus, a crucial Game of Thrones character returns for season six, learn more about Westworld, and Bryan Fuller talks Hannibal’s future. Spoilers Now!
Set in the near future, Ghost Fleet dares to imagine what the next global war might actually look like. We talked to P.W. Singer to learn how he and his co-author August Cole managed to produce a futuristic techno-thriller that’s as plausible as it is entertaining. We were also given an exclusive excerpt from the…
Remember the 1983 movie WarGames? The film is about a computer “game” with the potential to start thermonuclear war. But strangely this scenario is more truth than fiction. Because in 1979 programmers at NORAD almost started World War III when they accidentally ran a computer simulation of a Soviet attack.
In 1951 Collier's magazine devoted an entire issue to reporting an imagined version of World War III. The magazine followed every detail of the conflict from the first attack to the eventual occupation of Russia by the United Nations.
The early 1980s was a time of serious dread for many people worried that the U.S. and the Soviet Union might start World War III. And it's easy to understand why. One wrong move by either nuke-equipped country, and it was the end of civilization as we knew it. In fact, that's nearly what happened on September 26, 1983…
Today, India successfully tested the Agni-V, a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The missile has a range of over 3,000 miles and could potentially reach Beijing or Shanghai, China. This is not good.
DARPA has a plan called Prompt Global Strike that'll knock out any terrorist target within an hour using a remote aircraft. Sounds great, except the first trial of this advanced weapon failed miserably. The defense agency now has one more try to get it right or the project will be canceled.
In 1971, the National Emergency Warning Center accidentally told US radio stations to suspend all broadcasts, presumably because the world was ending in a nuclear fireball. It took them 40 minutes to correct this apocalyptic gaffe.
In Brian Moore's update of WWII propaganda posters, nations are brought down not by armies and guns, but by blogs and tweets. Hang one up and show your support for net neutrality, Wikipedia, and information pirates.
With North Korea reportedly moving forward with its uranium-enrichment program, South Korea is bracing itself for World War III. South Korea's Coast Guard staged a training exercise in Incheon with this somewhat cartoony "mock ship." More training-for-apocalypse photos below.
This year has presented us with a plethora of planet-imperiling scenarios, from Watchmen toTransformers. But despite the promising threats of nuclear war and killer robots, I'm left feeling empty. The Apocalypse used to be fun. What happened?
