Omega: The Last Days Of The World By Camille Flammarion

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The Last Days Of The World Camille Flammarion Omega: The Last Days Of The World is no less than an epic history of our future—a startling and unforgettable vision of the end of the world. Reasoned scientific speculation combined with probing philosophical inquiry lend credibility and magnitude to this tale of how humankind will physically and culturally evolve over the next several million years. The end begins in the twenty-fifth century, when a comet threatens to collide with the earth. The consequences of that frightening cosmic event are far-reaching, setting in motion a series of physical, psychic, and social changes that will profoundly affect the planet and its people far into the future. The earth’s surface drastically transforms over time. Cultures radically alter, collapse, and fade away. Nations rise and fall, species become extinct, and human beings find themselves at the end of the world, alone and changed in fundamental ways. This melancholic, poetic science fiction tale of things to come is as compelling and disturbing today as when it was first written. The first half of Omega is a tour de force of hard science applied to a fantastic scenario: the end of the world and how it might actually take place, scientifically speaking. Like many Victorian books, it is written more as an essay with a story only marginally layered on top. The various scenarios that could cause the end of the world are delivered as a series of infodumps by learned professors of various specialties. The situation that sets off the discussion, the approach of a large asteroid towards the Earth, is quickly set aside for more esoteric Armageddons. The second half is an impressive extrapolation, using the science of the time (for example, they did not know stars like the Sun create energy with nuclear fusion, instead speculating that it was due to gravitational forces), of the evolution and ultimate extinction of humans, the planets, and the universe millions of years in the future.