Professor John McCarthy
Father of AI

Imaginary Menaces

22 May 2007

Besides the real menaces, there are many imaginary menaces.

  1. Running out of oxygen. One sees this from time to time. The problem is that the atmosphere is 20 percent oxygen. Burning everything combustible in the world wouldn't use up the oxygen in the atmosphere.
  2. The earth becoming as hot as Venus. This is maybe a 20 year old imaginary menace, and the up-to-date doomsayers don't mention it any more. Still it's lurking in some old books and will pop up from time to time.

More imaginary menaces are to come.