She Treads Softly: The Day It Finally Happens

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Day It Finally Happens

The Day It Finally Happens by Mike Pearl
Scribner: 9/17/19
eBook review copy; 304 pages
ISBN-13: 9781501194139

The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans-and Other Possible Phenomena by Mike Pearl is a very highly recommended entertaining, yet serious look at nineteen different events that may spark some fear or trepidation from people.

Pearl writes: "I’m not a statistician or a physicist. In fact, I’m terrible at math, but I do like to predict the future, and I’ve made a job of it. I just approach it a little differently because my main qualification is a paralyzing fear of things that are going to happen. My fear comes from an anxiety disorder - a very common mental illness. It’s a mixed blessing for someone who works as an explanatory journalist: it fills my head with ideas, but I hate the ideas."

This is very well written examination of events that includes research, entertaining speculation, statistics, practical discussions, and a measure of personal anxiety. The scenarios he presents open with the title of the event to be discussed and/or feared then there is a breakdown covering: Likely in this century?; Plausibility Rating? (rating is a number out of a possible 5); Scary? (an assessment of how scary the situation is); and finally the question is posed, Worth changing habits? Pearl goes on to present the facts and information along with his thoughts about each situation, but does so in a funny, personable, and logical manner. It all combines to make The Day It Finally Happens a very interesting and entertaining look at events that can and do cause anxiety in many people. After the epilogue Pearl includes notes from each chapter.

The widely varied, yet potentially frightening events contemplated include: The Day the UK Finally Abolishes Its Monarchy; The Day a Tech Billionaire Takes Over the World; The Day Doping Is Allowed at the Olympics; The Day Humans Become Immortal; The Day Anyone Can Imitate Anyone Else Perfectly; The Day the Last Human-Driven Car Rolls Off the Lot; The Day Saudi Arabia Pumps Its Last Barrel of Oil; The Day a Real Jurassic Park Opens; The Day Antibiotics Don’t Work Anymore; The Day the Last Fish in the Ocean Dies; The Day the US Completely Bans Guns; The Day Nuclear Bombs Kill Us All; The Day a Baby Is Born on the Moon; The Day the Entire Internet Goes Down; The Day the Last Slaughterhouse Closes; The Day Humans Get a Confirmed Signal from Intelligent Extraterrestrials; The Day the Next Supervolcano Erupts; The Day the Last Slave Goes Free; The Day the Last Cemetery Runs Out of Space.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Scribner.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.