https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/thomas-moynihan-writings daily 0.75 2026-01-11 https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/thomas-moynihan-contact-me daily 0.75 2022-12-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1595778652435-U8IWCFUCUYMG7LHF6RCH/awful+changes.png Thomas Moynihan - Contact Me https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/thomas-moynihan-links daily 0.75 2026-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/38a7f200-122a-4a29-804d-f7777d4f7eae/wright+invert+upscale.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/7f8d39c6-b8ce-4242-878a-1e3947643bce/inv+erasmus.png https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/thomas-moynihan-bio daily 0.75 2025-10-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/55b88afd-fdf5-4c18-afb8-d1443eef130c/Tom+M+-+Headshot+2025.png Thomas Moynihan - Bio - About me: Thomas Moynihan is a historian of ideas & writer. He holds a DPhil from Oriel College, Oxford, and is currently a Research Affiliate at Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, as well as an Berggruen Fellow at the Berggruen Institute, and an Affiliate Researcher at the Antikythera think-tank. His writing and work has appeared in publications like BBC Future, The New Scientist, The Guardian, Aeon, Noema Magazine, The Independent, MIT Press Reader, Vice, Tank Magazine, and The Daily Mail. Thomas studies how worldviews transform over time, in often radical ways, as more is learnt and revealed about the cosmos and our placement within it. In particular, he is interested in how accumulating insights about the external universe have, again and again, reorganised our sense of the biggest picture priorities, potentials, and perils facing our species. Aside from regularly keynoting at institutions ranging from Stanford University to MIT Media Lab to Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun Contemporary, Thomas has been featured on shows and podcasts including BBC Radio 4, CBC Radio, 80,000 Hours, and The Atlantic, and his writing and work has appeared in publications like BBC Future, The New Scientist, The Guardian, Aeon, Noema Magazine, The Independent, MIT Press Reader, Vice, Tank Magazine, and The Daily Mail. Amongst other projects, Thomas is currently working on a book exploring how science discovered the deep future and proved that the present moment might be able to dictate its course. The project explores our species’s changing sense of orientation within not only time, but also relative to all the ways things — in the broadest sense of the term — could have gone otherwise… Thomas is represented by Max Edwards at Apple Tree Literary. https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/home daily 1.0 2026-01-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/9e860bbb-d62f-4ec5-b5d9-3c4a8ab8884c/BIG.png Home - ‘Mirror Life’ & THE RECURRING NIGHTMARE OF SCIENTIFIC APOCALYPSE FOR BIG THINK In 2024, a team of Nobel-winning scientists warned that creating “mirror life” could unleash catastrophic risks. But, for centuries, scientists have feared discoveries that might trigger forces beyond human control. From artificial life to vacuum collapse, this is the story of science’s recurring doomsday visions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/791a54dd-e1d2-4478-9465-a3809e8e253e/BIG2.png Home - THE PHILOSOPHERS WHO PREDICTED ‘ULTIMATE’ FORMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FOR BIG THINK For Big Think’s ‘Consciousness’ special issue, I explore the persistent presumption that, if there are minimal forms of consciousness, there might also be maximal ones... Or, what is it like to be a mollusk? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/27eca674-bfdc-485e-a4c8-11621e0f4f04/secular-religions Home - IN DEFENSE OF SECULAR RELIGIONS FOR COMBINATIONS MAGAZINE Modernity - both in science and ethics - can be seen as an accidental offshoot of medieval theology. But whereas others have insisted this undermines the entire 'modern' endeavor, I argue exactly the opposite. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/a8a78b3c-11a4-4186-bd95-c4f6befaf867/ezgif-13ecf50aac285a.gif Home - THE HISTORY OF NOW FOR ANTIKYTHERA JOURNAL How much past is behind us and how much future might be left ahead? ‘The History of Now’ is an interactive timeline visualizing how humanity’s sense of time has changed over time. Using a large database, it maps historic predictions on how long the past was and how long the future might be. The project reveals how much our sense of the past behind and future ahead has ballooned over history… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/b10b4fd4-372b-4c7a-bada-0f1bed95090c/slime.jfif Home - LIFE AS SLIME FOR ASIMOV PRESS Many prominent scientists have claimed that life is “just” slime on a spinning rock. However, in an age when the rarity and fragility of life are increasingly evident, it’s time to retire the metaphor… This article traces ideas of the origin of life, and shows how the idea we are ‘just’ slime is a hangover from obsolesced worldviews. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/4a3c2491-3cb3-44c3-a970-258b28902d92/computer.png Home - THE MEDIA & MORPHOSPACE OF HISTORY FOR FARSIGHT MAGAZINE For most of human history we believed that everything that could happen, had already happened, and would happen again – ad infinitum. The rise of novel media technologies would change that. From books to computers, the medium with which we record and process information grants us access to history’s forking paths. As the astronomer’s telescope discovered Deep Space, and the geologist’s hammer unveiled Deep Time, so too is the computer simulation revealing Deep Possibility. Read on to find out what that means… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/84f53a76-5a9f-46f1-9399-6c9c5cd1ad39/Thomas-Moynihan-Dinosaur-Attack Home - THE STRANGE HISTORY OF DE-EXTINCTION BEGAN LONG BEFORE THE SCIENCE FOR BIG THINK The concept of species extinction is only a couple of centuries old. But as soon as scientists began accepting that species could die out, they also began speculating on ways we could resurrect them. From dinosaurs to aurochs, early visions of de-extinction blurred science, myth, and mourning. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/ee276eab-b895-44ee-8d6a-c16e5d23ba37/Life+on+Mars%2C+1956+Life+Magazine+24+Sept.png Home - ALIENS, EVERYWHERE: WHY SCIENTISTS ONCE ASSUMED EVERY PLANET WAS INHABITED For BIG THINK For centuries, scientists assumed the universe was not only full, but brimful, of life. Many claimed even the surfaces of suns where inhabited, whilst others conducted cosmic censuses: guessing total population numbers for the universe… in the quadrillions. This is the story of why people used to assume every last planet was occupied by reasoning beings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/0e7bed33-9bb0-4c4a-886b-6cc55b61e7cb/1991-don-davis-planetoid-hitting-earth-3-3800x2632.jpg Home - ASTEROID ANXIETY: Astronomy’s 300-year quest to predict cosmic collisions FOR BIG THINK Asteroid #2024YR4 recently provoked fear of cosmic collision. But astronomy's quest to forecast such hazards goes back to the very origin of science itself. In fact, such efforts provided early vindication of the promise of the scientific method, back when many thought it to be a trifling, ineffectual pursuit. This is the story of one of modern science’s earliest triumphs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/3363dbaf-f4df-44ea-b38f-7c8b1cac756b/Hartmann.png Home - TIME’S BOOKENDS FOR AEON The Copernican Revolution showed us where we find ourselves in space. More recently, science has pinpointed where we find ourselves in time. Namely, it has shown that, in this universe, time has extremities. This matters. Because, only where time has bookends, and is not eternal, do the consequences of our actions resonate indelibly: insofar as not every possible outcome will come to pass regardless. This stands set to inculcate a revolution comparable to the Copernican, if not greater… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/e2203f27-44c6-45fe-b26b-8c672529e7db/Shapley+-+Star+Stuff+NYT.jpg Home - HOW HUMANITY DISCOVERED WE ARE ALL MADE OF “STAR STUFF” FOR BIG THINK Carl Sagan was far from the first to claim humans are "made from star stuff". From Paracelsus to Margaret Huggins, this is the story of how we realised the suns are our parents and our bodies made from their ash… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/a16b909b-f90b-4093-9ade-7d4e1ed0a301/noema-world-brain.gif Home - ARE WE ACCIDENTALLY BUILDING A PLANETARY BRAIN? FOR NOEMA MAGAZINE The process of producing artificial intelligence might also artificialize our entire planet. Many have argued this is already well underway. From superorganisms to superintelligences, this is the story of how studying crabs led to suggestions we are unintentionally buildling a world brain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/caff1bbf-36e7-4b17-a273-1822b5f3525c/VENUS+HEADER.png Home - HOW THE SEARCH FOR DINOSAURS ON VENUS EXPOSED A WARNING FOR EARTH FOR BIG THINK A century ago, many people believed that dinosaurs roamed Venus. It was only through toppling this belief, that our neighbouring planet is swampy & sweltering, that we truly came to grips with the potentials for climate change on Earth… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/929c8a6d-d3ec-4f27-9998-bed259d41f57/Stone+Henge+Time+Capsule++%E2%80%94+FINAL+%E2%80%94+7019x3948.jpg Home - THE BOLD VICTORIAN PLAN TO PUT A MASSIVE TIME CAPSULE UNDERNEATH STONE HENGE FOR BBC FUTURE In 1877, the historian Frederic Harrison wanted to bury a legacy for the 29th Century beneath the UK's ancient monument. It included poetry, music, skeletons, and a guide to being a Cockney. (Cover illustration by me.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/803b1be8-8f97-47ad-95a6-ab81ec37be15/00179.jpg Home - UNTANGLING RELIGION FROM OUR AI DEBATES FOR NOEMA MAGAZINE People claim ideas and factions in the world of AI resemble motifs and schisms from religions of the past. Those advocating AI safety and AI accelerationism, alike, are accused of subscribing to their own opposing theologies… But what's really at stake in the game of uncloaking and scorning 'secular religions’? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/98c7417e-8aef-4468-aa7a-529edf4f1106/Picture2.png Home - A US ENGINEER HAD A SHOCKING PLAN TO IMPROVE THE CLIMATE: BURN ALL COAL ON EARTH FOR BBC FUTURE Less than a century ago, one US engineer believed setting alight every coal mine on the planet would be good for the climate. He was not alone in such beliefs. The fact we've come so far in our understanding since then provides cautious hope for the future… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/0ea630ba-a63f-4e01-b566-e679b07455f7/00014.jpg Home - HOW TO AVOID SEEING THE FUTURE AS DYSTOPIA FOR BBC FUTURE On lessons from forecasts produced 100 years ago: when tomorrow’s world seemed less tethered to the polar extremes of ‘utopia’ and ‘dystopia’, and other, stranger, more multifarious possibilties abounded… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/a93f22bc-1cc2-4d49-acc2-aa4dc8f85e47/fieldguide-spike-art-moynihan.png Home - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: STRANGER THAN YESTERDAY’S TOMORROWS FOR SPIKE ART MAGAZINE Even if our present would shock the past, the apparent newness of AI belies that its conceptual premises are centuries old, as are the anxieties that computation arouses. Is making machines more like people turning humans more like things? And does the future where we will have our being scare us with its strangeness, or with the risk it will be more of the same, just worse? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/906bb9e1-eff0-48a7-8f6b-23bc5ee0a370/blow+up+the+theatre+mr+rutherford%21+jph.jpg Home - THE FEAR OF A NUCLEAR FIRE THAT WOULD CONSUME EARTH FOR BBC FUTURE The story behind the worry that subatomic tampering may ignite the atmosphere and detonate Earth, and what it may tell us about current fears swirling around artificial intelligence… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/5be2a4fe-b51f-424a-bbc2-99f1dda1c18b/F3L1nQaXoAkx_IU.jpg Home - Don’t DENIGRATE THE DINOSAURS! FOR NOEMA MAGAZINE When people first encountered extinct beasts, they tended to blame—and even scorn—them for their demise. Through learning to stop pillorying the perished, humanity learnt a lesson in humility, important for our age of ecological crisis… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/f073ec28-170b-462e-a8c6-29e0eb7442a0/Predicing+The+Future+of+Mind Home - PREDICTING THE FUTURE OF MIND FOR THE PHILOSOPHER Why does predicting the future of mind have such a chequered history? A reflection on contingency. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/64100ad6-254d-4cd2-b9bb-4eed71873a55/harper%27s+-+cockroach+futuresjpg Home - How insect 'civilisations' recast our place in the Universe FOR BBC FUTURE The story of how discoveries, regarding the humble ant, influenced our view of humanity's place – and ultimate prospects – within the Universe… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1632964770518-TZVFNZM48EHOKXFE26MR/Moynihan-Futures-Atoms-Radioactivity.jpg Home - CREATURES OF THE DAWN: HOW RADIOACTIVITY UNLOCKED DEEP TIME FOR BBC FUTURE How the discovery of radioactivity taught us that we could be living at the very beginning of human history… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/80eae8d6-cbf7-4f71-a132-8b8acd9acedc/bonestell-destination-moon.jpg Home - WHY ARE BILLIONAIRES OBSESSED WITH GOING TO SPACE? FOR THE GUARDIAN What the history of space settlement tells us about present ambitions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1631717706904-ST513XW4FYDHESOFZRY2/b13-wireheading-moynihan.jpg Home - DRUGS, ROBOTS, AND THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE — WHY EXPERTS ARE WORRIED ABOUT AIS BECOMING ADDICTS FOR THE Conversation InsightS What would you be willing to sacrifice for the purest pleasure? The strange, fascinating, and illuminating history of ‘wireheading’. Co-authored with Anders Sandberg. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/b562749c-466c-4293-98a3-f1c3ae431d7b/00085.jpg Home - WHAT WE COULD LEARN FROM THE PLANTS FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIFE OF PLANTS Curious speculations on photosynthesis, solar energy, and humanity’s fate. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1623687765929-PVNTGXOV0EN9OPLPE2AJ/trojan-history-of-ideas-moynihan.jfif Home - WHY PRIOR GENERATIONS MISSED SOME OF THE BIGGEST PRIORITIES OF ALL FOR 80,000 HOURS Podcast and in-depth write-up for 80,000 Hours podcast, with Rob Wiblin & Keiran Harris. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1616071285684-S6FBY5WWCLHLKTIB161A/dolphins+and+nonhuman+intelligence+moynihan Home - DOLPHIN INTELLIGENCE & THE FERMI PARADOX FOR AEON What the porpoise taught us about humanity’s potential — a reflection on SETI, dolphins, and silence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/5d6954a2-aa8c-4918-8392-98fca910416f/doomsdaydaybreak.png Home - DOOMSDAY’S DAYBREAK FOR TANK MAGAZINE During what could be the daybreak of human history, the severity of extinction rests on futures lost. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/651bf4f3-b831-4b66-8297-021524a990d8/pokrovsky+shell.png Home - MEGA-STRUCTURES TO HELP SEED LIFE THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY FOR VICE On ideas surrounding astroengineering, Dyson spheres, and directed panspermia - past and present. Exploring proposals for space gardening and greening the galaxy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1607689673041-QWJY58FMV76J6FWICTOM/Malthus_Moynihan Home - The Classification of hUMANkind, and birth of population SCIENCE FOR SALON Ironically, the computations of risk that had first made global population visible to us simultaneously forced us to acknowledge that it was itself subject to risk… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1601401456991-5NU4IEKIDDT24MYF1DC8/ThomasMoynihan_image11 Home - HUMAN EXTINCTION — A TIMELINE FOR MIT PRESS READER A timeline of thinking on human extinction, splitting it into 4 distinct phases. From the ancient philosophers all the way to COVID-19… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1595776479374-55JZ0PYYO5G2USPAARE0/Longo_SicknessofReason_002.jpg Home - THE LESSON OF HIROSHIMA FOR THE NEW SCIENTIST The nuclear bomb told us we are the greatest threat to our own survival – and the COVID-19 pandemic shows the lessons still to learn… Co-authored with Anders Sandberg. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1601401943672-EGLMR9I0ARK1UOJYF6XJ/48847807527_8f35da2175_o.jpg Home - How much longer do we have left on Earth? FOR THE INDEPENDENT Realising the silence of outer space was what made us appreciate our precarious position down on this pale blue dot – so beginning our obsession with extinction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1595775327011-BETRHY4GFERRNNC2EQTH/ThomasMoynihan_Image03 Home - The End of Us FOR AEON MAGAZINE Only since the Enlightenment have we been able to imagine humans going extinct. Is it a sign of our maturity as a species? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1595775394002-A7QSTEK4DUEID0IWR3PH/ThomasMoynihan_Image04 Home - Our Visions of the Future Determine Our Society Today FOR PALLADIUM MAGAZINE Futurists have imagined a conflicted spectrum of cosmic visions with intriguing convergence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1595776947682-BIQO5MOJAC456D6K0DBB/X-Risk+Cover Home - HOW HUMANITY DISCOVERED ITS OWN EXTINCTION A book on the history of the idea of human extinction. Released in 2020 with MIT Press & Urbanomic. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365926102-IOJK50NGU91FJEUHI52R/X-Risk+Moynihan+1.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 1 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365926821-Y9D3WROHB0FG3AOLS5O6/X-Risk+Moynihan+2.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365925370-GU05KLOZSVD7D89MXYMA/X-Risk+Moynihan+3.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 3 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365926103-TQ414NX3P6W5RX22ZDHV/X-Risk+Moynihan+4.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 4 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365930656-86ZFKUSJH0ORY7PPNPF7/X-Risk+Moynihan+5.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365927424-HP5KVSJBQ3ORT7EWVQLT/X-Risk+Moynihan+6.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 6 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365935787-BE7EFSQYBS69IUBKLYVJ/X-Risk+Moynihan+7.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 7 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365935790-NROAB4V7MU6JP9JE4L96/X-Risk+Moynihan+8.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 8 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365935936-TQFW6BYNE4IBH8Z707UU/X-Risk+Moynihan+9.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 9 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365940404-5F28X6J23M7A328F5660/X-Risk+Moynihan+10.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365938613-Q1MCD9JJK6G6K9SR345W/X-Risk+Moynihan+11.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365940555-4N9NFJCZR2VU2BV0ZXX5/X-Risk+Moynihan+12.jpg Home Thomas Moynihan X-Risk How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction Book Image 112 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f1d8a599322d817a055bea3/1600365940845-I9T0NCUK3NV72IPC7UWL/X-Risk+Moynihan+13.jpg Home https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/x-risk-how-humanity-discovered-its-own-extinction daily 0.75 2023-03-16 https://thomasmoynihan.xyz/errata daily 0.75 2022-01-05