100 Years to Extinction with Dr. Peter Solomon

August 20, 2025·47 min·4 clips

Scientist Dr. Peter Solomon warns humanity has only 100 years left before extinction, according to Stephen Hawking's prediction.

The interview starts gently. The host introduces Dr. Peter Solomon through a long professional path: physics at Columbia University, companies, patents, publications, and government research. Solomon is looking ahead, but not in a shiny futurist way. His current work is described as a warning to the next generation about science and technology moving without enough restraint. From there, the conversation turns to public trust. Solomon compares older news systems with social media and says newspapers and television once had legal pressure on them when they spread false information. He names Fox News directly. That example leads into his concern about platforms that say they are only giving people a place to post. The phrase fallacy virus does the work here. Solomon uses it for false claims that enter social media, get reposted, and make the information body sick. It is a blunt image, and it lands. In his telling, a lie acts like a virus because it finds people who reproduce it until the larger system weakens. What worries him is the pull of spectacle. Quiet, mundane stories struggle when dramatic falsehoods move faster and grab more attention. He points to Sandy Hook Elementary Massacre claims, the big lie of the 2020 election, and claims about immigrants eating pets as examples of stories that spread without enough checking. The host keeps the conversation grounded. Near the end, the warning opens into an invitation for listeners to send ideas for building a better future. 100 Years to Extinction stays at the center as both an alarm and an attempt to think through a response.

As heard by us

A sober warning about technology, truth, and the spread of false claims.

Dr. Peter Solomon offers a long-view look at what can happen when technology moves faster than judgment. The episode traces his path from a Columbia PhD and company-building career into a warning for the next generation about unchecked science and technology, with social media…

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Why you'd press play

A scientist-entrepreneur explains why unchecked science and technology worry him, and how falsehoods spread online.

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