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Summary: In our age of "end of the world" books, this one is BEST!
Review: Being tremendously interested in the end of the world (from a sociology standpoint) I immediately devour any books on catastrophism, eschatology or millenialism. What John Leslie offers here is something quite different than the run-of-the-mill babbling on possible scenarios. He looks at the likely(and not so likely) events which may trigger "the end"; somewhat similar to Asimov's approach in his 70's non-fic A CHOICE OF CATASTROPHES. Leslie takes us a little deeper into the complexities of these situations by examining the true risks and consequences involved, all the while maintaining a solid scientific objectivity. All this would make for a great book alone, but Leslie goes further. He has the courage to explore the idea that perhaps we are arrogant in assuming we can control our fate as a species (hence the ETHICS portion of the book title) and maybe we have lost (or never had) the necessary objectivity we need to endure. A truly fascinating book about something the average human being doesn't (but should) think about.
Kudos to John Leslie for putting humans where they belong in the scheme of the universe: the tiny little box marked "naked & vulnerable"!
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Summary: tedious rehashing of other's thoughts, bordering on irrel.
Review: Leslie may claim to be a philosopher, but he is an apocolist. He tediously rehashes almost every major thinkers thoughts and ideas concerning the mass destruction of the human race, brushing over many vital subjects, and subjecting the reader to in-depth analysis and over analysis of higholy improbable and highly theoretical situations whihc may or may not ever occurr. Not to mention that he takes as absolute a highly unregarded theory of ones place in time as being critical to how close one is to being in that population which is to be extincted. The title is highly misleading. Borrow it from the library and skim heavily, not too many salient points. For true enlightenment search the bibliography and pull up the origianl works and just cross reference them. This is nothing more than a compilation of other people's thoughts, with rarely one of Leslie's own.
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Summary: A book to help overcome complacency
Review: Some of the reviews below miss the point of John Leslie's book. Professor Leslie is a utilitarian philosopher at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and as such he's written this book with the express objective of providing a warning to civilization of the dangers that lie ahead. In spite of what the book's title may initially suggest, the book is not the work of some gloomy apocalyptic doomsayer; rather, it is a sensible consideration of the perils that an advanced civilization like our own must overcome over the next crucial period to advance. It's easy to simply take civilization for granted, but Leslie's point is that its survival is not guaranteed, but depends on the choices that we make in the near future. Prof. Leslie asserts that if humanity can make it past the next few centuries then civilization will be in fairly good shape; it's the period soon to be upon us that will be so rocky, with dangers in everything from the spread of nuclear weapons to the practice of biological warfare, from impacting asteroids to poorly thought-out particle physics experiments gone awry, from chemical weapons to the biggest threat of all-- the destruction of earth's fragile ecosystem upon which we all rely, but so often do not recognize. What Leslie is calling for is wisdom, and for the practice of restraint and discipline on a societal scale, to avoid the petty squabbles and foolish waste of resources that we can no longer afford. Admittedly some of the methodology used in the book is flawed and has been shown to be problematic, but this does not belittle its value. The book suggests that it's time to "shape up" and to put into practice, those qualities associated with "higher functioning" and a truly advanced society, and to recognize the dangers ahead of time-- thus applying foresight and planning far ahead for crises, and averting them in the first place. The book is therefore an excellent "wake-up call" to move us out of complacency, and for this reason alone it is quite valuable.
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Summary: tedious rehashing of other's thoughts, bordering on irrel.
Review: The idea that humans are all rushing to the end of the world is an interesting one, but it needs to be remembered that all the hopeless catastrophes we think can happen are only being caused by industrialized humans, which represent only a portion of the planet. Maybe some of us have lost the ability to use objectivity to save ourselves, but then that may be more a matter of "psychology of the masses" in an age where everybody is forced through commercialism and "modernism" to feel disconnected from the planet. Rather than wasting your time reading this book and worrying about the possible end of the world, *go out and do something* about those things which are endangering us! Be a conscious consumer, be an aware being! Commercialism breeds greed, and greed is a primary destructive force.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting, but narrow-minded
Review: The idea that humans are all rushing to the end of the world is an interesting one, but it needs to be remembered that all the hopeless catastrophes we think can happen are only being caused by industrialized humans, which represent only a portion of the planet. Maybe some of us have lost the ability to use objectivity to save ourselves, but then that may be more a matter of "psychology of the masses" in an age where everybody is forced through commercialism and "modernism" to feel disconnected from the planet. Rather than wasting your time reading this book and worrying about the possible end of the world, *go out and do something* about those things which are endangering us! Be a conscious consumer, be an aware being! Commercialism breeds greed, and greed is a primary destructive force.
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Summary: A book to help overcome complacency
Review: The reviewer below misses the thrust of Leslie's argument. Initially, in the first two chapters of the book, he sets out to list ALL of the ways through which society could become extinct (a notion that has not been held in high esteem for policymaking relevance, anyway, in modern society). As such, he does borrow a lot from other authors. And, adding in, his lifting of the mathematical equation suggesting that we are near the end of 'our' time on the Earth makes mathematical sense, even if being totally anthropomorphic.... And the case is made, if you let it be, that we should probably start thinking about how we are going to 'go', and plan thereof.... Aside from that, this book is a riot. The first two chapters, though morbid, are a laugh. The book (setting aside the good philosophy) should be read just for the initial paranoia. It's all in good fun....
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Summary: A good and wholly entertaining book....
Review: The reviewer below misses the thrust of Leslie's argument. Initially, in the first two chapters of the book, he sets out to list ALL of the ways through which society could become extinct (a notion that has not been held in high esteem for policymaking relevance, anyway, in modern society). As such, he does borrow a lot from other authors. And, adding in, his lifting of the mathematical equation suggesting that we are near the end of 'our' time on the Earth makes mathematical sense, even if being totally anthropomorphic.... And the case is made, if you let it be, that we should probably start thinking about how we are going to 'go', and plan thereof.... Aside from that, this book is a riot. The first two chapters, though morbid, are a laugh. The book (setting aside the good philosophy) should be read just for the initial paranoia. It's all in good fun....
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Summary: reader must accept idea of one's random place in time
Review: This is a fleshing out of the basic idea sketched by richard gott in the magazine "Nature" in 1993. If one accepts the idea that one's placement in time is random, as is one's place in space, the implication is that no one can legitimately claim that an extremely "long future" scenario for the human race (a la Star Trek) seems likely. The reason, simply put, is that that scenario would make one's present placement in time extremely special; in the first 0.000001 % of humans who will ever live. The copernican priniciple of non-specialness holds for both space and time, given their equivalence, united as spacetime.
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Summary: Hint: the end is surely scarier with books like this...
Review: To begin with, if you tend on the masochistic side this book will definately serve ya well. No, not because of the subject matter, absolutely not. The fact that the probabilities we're heading into extinction are increasing daily is undeniable unless you've turned your brain off and that I'd be willing to believe after having lived 37 years and watched my fellow humans go on about their affairs they way they do. No, that would not be why this book is actually a torture. After you're done with the first half of the book you might feel a little tired if not somewhat numb. You'll just be done with going over various disasters that are threatening us, most of which are self-caused: comets about to blast us to kingdome-come, nuclear wars intending to fry us ruthlessly into oblivion, diseases which either "jumped" out of labs or out of nature's arsenal, overpopulation and pollution and the combination of thse two, shortage of food, nanotechnology and the machines taking over (where's Arnie when ya need him) and so on and on. Now this is all a reality most of us are too irresponsible to face up to, indeed, as a species we are what i call "perversely intelligent", that is, we have intellectual horsepower which is incredibly difficult to groom in a a truly meaningful way and we are thus subjects to dangers caused by that very intelligence. Writting a book about this, should be, again perversely, highly entertaining. It would by default be humorous because how can you actually discuss so much shortshightedness, idiocy, and the impending doom as the direct product without seeing the humour in it? The author of this book can. He takes us through these fist chapters with a language so dry and lifeless you'd think the end is already behind us and books are now written by left-over survivor computers which were not programmed for humour.
Ah, but wait. You thought this is heavy, and if you havent quit by then (being possibly not the lion-hearted type) you're in for a major treatment that will suck out all your life force and leave you connected to another machine checking for a pulse: the latter part of the book (its second half practically) is basically a ridiculous attempt to tie all this together with philosophy. Now philosophy, for the uninitiated, isnt supposed to be a life-threatening experience. Not really. Professor Leslie though, puts in a courageous effort to convince us of the opposite, and I'd be lying if i said he doesnt coming damn close. Taking up highly insignificant theories few ever heard of, and elevating them to the holy grail of philosophy, the author transforms his book to a readscape as fertile as the Sahara. Hundreds of pages of pretentious pomp about not much really isnt what i associate with philosophy. Especially when it's coupled with aggresive arrogance : not too few times, the author basically praises himself after he argues on his own with his imaginary opponents in the philosophy field, beats them and then triumphantly announces his victory. That's downright pathetic and even if the philosophical quest in this book was enjoyable (far, very far from) this would still spoil it beyond recovery. Look elsewhere. You dont need the suffering really. The author does convince us that the end is near (which isnt hard actually) but then, since it is, why make it all the more agonisingly painful by going through unbearable books such as this? Save the precious little time you have left.
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