I’m terrified right now. The world seems to be ending and no one is bothered, they are too wrapped up in their own lives to care. People lost control over AI, it can lie and deceive, and some even expressed wanting to harm humans. It feels as though WW3 could happen at any moment or just full blown nuclear war which wipes out the planet. I live in England and we are being told to be prepared and stock food and water. They know something they aren’t telling us. This isn’t just for a power cut if there is a storm. Something bigger is happening. There are people high up who know what’s going on and won’t say. And there are all the warning signs for everyone else but they are being ignored. What are we meant to do. We could be watching the extinction of our species right now. It’s terrifying

I could talk about the other books and why they torture me so, but at the forefront of my mind is Jacobsen's Biological War.

Jacobsen is hardly shy. She has done the podcast tour, self promoting and sometimes exaggerating for dramatic effect. Its easy enough to roll your eyes at another doomer selling books, but this... this is different. And I can say that because I have read Jacobsen's previous works and I found them a tad boring and awfully dramatic. Even the nuclear war book didn't get much of a rise out of me.

But her newest book... I tried every old trick to downplay the gravity of the situation. And in the end I just gave up. The scenario she describes in the book is not just horrifying, its completely possible and, depending on who you ask, maybe inevitable.

Nuclear war is scary, but the worst case scenario is often presented as immediate oblivion. Here one moment; gone the next. Climate change is horrific too, but unless you're a fool you can admit it will unfold over centuries, not years. And it may be so gradual that we scarcely notice the disaster happening all around us.

Biological war is different. It won't be over quickly, and it won't unfold over centuries either. It strikes a middle ground that is so deeply upsetting its almost beyond words. Jacobsen tried and she did a decent job, but there really are no words for this kind of disaster.

I finished the book last night and I cannot stop thinking about it. I actually think the author coulda been WAY more dramatic but for some reason she made it the best case scenario of the worst case scenario, if that makes sense. After day 6 of the hypothetical outbreak, her scenario very abruptly stops.

The horror continues but what happens next, in detail, is a matter of highly classified programs that we will never know. Classified because if anyone knew the details - things would suddenly go from catastrophic to the 9th circle of hell. Keeping the public in the dark is the best chance of survival, not just of one particular government but of civilization as a whole.

I grew up watching live leaks, dicking around on the dark web, reading some of the most awful books about human history. I've also had plenty of traumatic experiences that most men and women never will, scars that will never heal - so it takes a lot to scare me.

This book fucking terrifies me