Doomsday Clock is now 90 seconds to midnight, the least remaining time ever — again

It's the time of year to update the Doomsday Clock. Watch The Doomsday Clock Is Closer to Catastrophe Than Ever Before from Time.

The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic tracker that represents the likelihood of human-made destruction, was updated Tuesday to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it’s ever been. It was the first time the clock had been updated since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Reuters explained the signficance of this event in What is the 'Doomsday Clock'?

Atomic scientists set the 'Doomsday Clock' in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight – closer than ever before to the threat of complete annihilation of humanity. But what is the Doomsday Clock?

ABC News gave a historical perspective in Doomsday Clock: A look back.

Scientists revealed that the "Doomsday Clock" has been moved up to 90 seconds before midnight — the closest humanity has ever been to armageddon.

Here are past evaluations of how close we are to the end of the world.

The clock has been at 100 seconds to midnight since 2020, so moving the hands ten seconds closer is a big deal and bad news. I wish I could say I am surprised, but between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and 2022 being the fifth-warmest year on record, demonstrating that climate change remains a threat, the situation has become more dangerous. While the Reuters video showed clips related to the pandemic, I don't think it factored much into the decision to move the hands closer to midnight. On the other hand, artificial intelligence, depicted as a Boston Dynamics robot "dog" instead of the AI art and writing that is making news, may be causing more anxiety than I think the technology deserves, although I think I should still blog about the latest developments in mimicking human creativity. Just the same, this is one of the rare times when I use the doom label seriously.

So ends January 2023's blogging. Stay tuned for the first post of February.