100 YEARS TO EXTINCTION: COMING SOON
Believing astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s gloomy prediction, that humans will not exist on Planet Earth in 100 years, three brilliant members of generation Z endeavor to find more optimistic alternatives. They are Elizabeth, the Black Belt fighter, black diamond snowboarder, medical doctor, and genetic engineering Ph.D., her embarrassing, geeky, younger sister Aster, the astrophysicist with a photographic memory, and their cousin Milo, the political science wonk. It’s a modern, epic story of settling a new world like the sagas of the Mayflower voyagers crossing the sea to America. But the story is also about leaving the old world a better place.
100 Years to Extinction starts when Elizabeth Arvad gets shot as a result of social upheaval during the COVID-19 pandemic. The incident motivates Elizabeth, Aster, and Milo, to make a promise. The three young people believe the older generations have left them a dysfunctional world, and it’s up to their generation Z, to save it. The shooting that brought the dysfunction home was a tipping point. Recovering at home, Elizabeth joins hands with Aster and Milo as they each promise to do at least one thing to help save humanity.
The story follows the actions, romances, and emotions of these three new adults as they pursue their different career paths. Each of them brings the information and prospective of their chosen field to keeping their promise. They’re fearful that their generation will be the last to reach adulthood in a democratic America, to walk unflooded streets in New York and Miami, and to see tigers and elephants in their natural habitats. The three cousins address the fragile state of the American democracy, the global climate crisis, the dangers of modern science and technology, and the threat of nuclear war. They work to wake up other members of their generation to these problems. But that future also includes the scientific wonders of artificial intelligence, fusion-powered interplanetary travel, sentient robots, mRNA cancer vaccines, and DNA data storage. What are the optimistic alternatives to extinction? Should they follow Hawking’s exhortation, to save humanity and its accomplishments by becoming a multi-planet species?