The Anti-Catastrophe League

My book, published in July 2025, is narrative non-fiction about humanity’s endeavours to prevent its own extinction. It brings together, and makes accessible to the public, much of the writing and research I’ve produced from 2022 onward.

It draws on 100+ interviews, and weaves together:

• The first human attempt to deflect an asteroid;

• The controversial matter of geoengineering, both of volcanoes and of the climate;

• The inside story of the Future of Humanity Institute, which brought attention to grave perils but was mysteriously shuttered by the University of Oxford;

• The race to make AI technically safe, and the foundation, by an unlikely group, of the British institute that assesses the danger of new AI models;

• The disputed existential catastrophe that is human ageing;

• Cutting-edge methods of harnessing geothermal power, and, relatedly, the world’s deepest hole.

The book was published by HarperCollins, under its Mudlark imprint, in July 2025. I wrote it in Berkeley, California, while a visiting fellow at Constellation, an AI research centre.

You can buy it via the usual platforms, summarised here. Americans can buy it here,

Naturally, my thinking has evolved since I conceived of the book and wrote it. You can find a coda of sorts here. I expect I’ll have more to add by the time the paperback is out.