💡 The Collapse Is Coming. Will Humanity Adapt?

What’s new and popular this week in Nautilus. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( EDITORS' CHOICE Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for joining us. Today we wonder whether humanity will adapt to impending collapse, take a close look at the smartphone of the middle ages, and consider the delightful possibility that Christianity is based on psychedelic trips. Our popular story this week makes the case that electrons may very well be conscious. I have been enjoying reading the things you all have mentioned memorizing and reciting—good stuff! Be sure to check out today’s question (on the happy topic of human extinction!) and today’s free story (on our prized executioner) below. See you soon! —Brian Gallagher The latest from Nautilus ENVIRONMENT The Collapse Is Coming. Will Humanity Adapt? An evolutionary biologist and a science fiction writer walk into a bar … and mull over survival. BY PETER WATTS [Continue reading →]( HISTORY The Smartphone of the Middle Ages An accident of lighting uncovers Jewish, European, and Islamic origins. BY TOM METCALFE [Continue reading →]( HISTORY Is Christianity Based on Psychedelic Trips? A radical theory that pagan cults gave rise to early Christianity. BY STEVE PAULSON [Continue reading →]( ADVERTISEMENT Monitor the Microclimate in Your Backyard You can track the impact of climate change right in your backyard with the [Ambient Weather Smart Weather Station](. The [Ambient Weather Smart Weather Station]( has a host of sensors that measure wind speed, temperature, humidity, rainfall, and much more and sends the information to an easy-to-read display and your smartphone. It’s great for gardeners and the [Ambient Weather Smart Weather Station]( is also the perfect Father’s Day gift for dads who like to talk about the weather. [BUY ON AMAZON]( Popular This Week PHILOSOPHY Electrons May Very Well Be Conscious Panpsychists look at the many degrees of complexity in nature and see no obvious line between mind and no-mind. BY TAM HUNT [Continue reading →]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... Are you at all sympathetic to the human extinction movement? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by “[The Collapse Is Coming. Will Humanity Adapt?](”) Top Answers to Our Previous Question (On Something You Can Recite from Memory) • In 8th grade, our history teacher made us memorize the Gettysburg Address. We got extra credit if we could do it in less than 30 seconds. I can still rattle off the address at super speed. – Sydney B. • I can recite the Preamble to the Constitution at the drop of a hat...or a ballot. – Rebecca B. • I memorized Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech because I found its philosophy seductive. As well as another favorite, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” because I found it the best poem I ever heard or read. Structured in the way the brain works, in my opinion. – Stacie S. • Growing up, the poem “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann always hung in the bathroom. I memorized it and pondered its lines over the decades. I still hear it in my head: “If you compare yourself to others, you may become bitter or vain, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” So many lines of wisdom—I feel it helped build my emotional intelligence as a kid. – Jaime V. • I can still recite all of “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. I used to recite it to my granddaughter who now also loves it. – Angie It’s Cold Brew Season With the [Breville Precision Brewer](, you can make cold brew coffee any time you want. It’s like a coffee shop on your counter! [BUY ON AMAZON]( QUOTE OF THE DAY “Everybody who saw that vision walked away claiming they’d become immortal.” [Brian Muraresku talks about the Eleusinian Mysteries, an ancient Greek psychedelic ceremony participants were barred from speaking about, on pain of death.]( Your free story this Sunday! MICROBIOLOGY The Executioner We Can’t Live Without You’re dead meat without special molecules that kill rotten proteins. BY PAMELA WEINTRAUB [Continue reading for free→]( Rocking Invisibility Deep beneath the sea, a host of animals have evolved a most peculiar power—the power of invisibility. In his [story](, “Nature’s Invisibility Cloak,” Edwin Barkdoll explains why and how so many animals disappear in the depths and hide in plain sight. Who better to tell his story about animals that seem to defy the laws of physics than the vocalist of a band that defies the limits of genre—Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells? You can now [watch]( and [listen]( to Sleigh Bells singer Alexis Krauss read Barkdoll’s story about animal invisibility on [YouTube]( and [Spotify](. P.S. The American biochemist Irwin Rose died on this day in 2015. He won a Nobel Prize in 2004—alongside Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover—for [discovering molecular shredders](. These mechanisms, built around a core molecule called ubiquitin, “destroy ruined proteins so that our bodies can replace them with fresh parts and not rot like a side of meat,” wrote Pamela Weintraub. They help control the overall process of genes coding for protein creation: the degradation of damaged goods, DNA repair, cell division, and immune defense. “The shredder,” wrote Weintraub, “enabled biologists to see the wizard behind the screen.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. 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