The last word: What are the odds? - The Week

The last word: What are the odds? - The Week: "Certain natural and man-made events that loom on the near horizon have the power to completely transform our world. Below, the editors of Scientific American contemplate a handful of possibilities and rate their likelihood of happening by 2050. Some may bring to mind long-standing dystopian visions—species extinction, war-waging machines, Frankenstein’s monster. Yet the best thinking today suggests that many events that have been widely feared will not unfold as popular conceptions have predicted they will."