The end of the world, and communicating when everyone can know everything

The asteroid 2024 YR continues to enjoy minor celebrity status, with scientists calculating the 90m long block of rock now has a 3.1 per cent chance of colliding with Earth (up from previous estimates of 1.2 per cent and 2.3 per cent).

Given the long odds, the localised effects of any collision, and the success of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in 2022, it’s hardly a cause for panic.

In fact, the attention is at least in part due to an increase in monitoring of near Earth objects, according to Gareth Collins at Imperial College London. Essentially, it’s not that this is necessarily unusual, we just know more now.

This deluge of information is nothing new. Trump 2.0’s communication strategy is to flood the market. AI chatbots put the near-totality of human knowledge (as well as a slew of slop) at the fingertips of anyone with an internet connection. 

Communicating when everyone knows everything, and it constantly seems like the world might end requires a deep understanding of not only current culture, but historical context. 

Does your big insight that things are bad hold true? Or do we just know more than we ever have before?