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TL;DR. Art tell us that the end of the world is a very attractive idea. There can be several psychological explanations. This increases x-risks.
Among the many traits of human culture, one of the most paradoxical is the dream of the end of the world. Apocalyptic narratives dominate mass culture: The Terminator, The Matrix, 2012, Armageddon, Don't Look Up - cinema returns again and again to the scenario of global annihilation.
The fact that in most of these films the catastrophe is averted should not mislead us. The happy ending is a frame that allows the destructive fantasy to be safely lived through. Just as interest in stories about serial killers reflects the shadow side of the psyche rather than a desire for safer streets, fascination with apocalyptic plots points to a deep-seated need that the viewer permits themselves to indulge in the first act, in order to symbolically neutralize it in the finale.
This motif was not born of cinema. Legends of the end of the world are present in virtually every religious tradition of humankind - from the biblical Apocalypse and the Norse Ragnarök to the Hindu Pralaya and the Aztec myth of the Five Suns. The subject is invariably the destruction of the entire world, not a single city or people. This cross-cultural universality points to the archetypal nature of the phenomenon – to something rooted in the very structure of the human psyche.
It is important to draw a line between the need for the end of the world and cognitive biases in the assessment of its risks. The latter – for example, the normalization of threat or hyper-optimism – are usually connected with an unwillingness to acknowledge real danger and are nourished by the desire that the world should continue to exist.
Manifestations
The need for the end of the world can be realized at various levels – from harmless to lethally dangerous.
At the symbolic level, it finds an outlet through culture: apocalyptic literature, films, video games, as well as through the subculture of "preppers," for whom preparation for catastrophe becomes a way of life. Here the destructive desire is sublimated, channeled into a safe direction.
At the behavioral level, a person may bring global catastrophe closer through their actions without being aware of the hidden motivation. This is possible in two cases. The first is a conscientious misjudgment of consequences: a scientist conducting a dangerous experiment may underestimate the risks partly because the deep part of their psyche does not resist a catastrophic outcome. The second is a rational strategy in which global catastrophe figures as one of the probable consequences - the classic example being the "doomsday machine" described by Herman Kahn and visualized by Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove.
The need to create autonomous entities
In the era of exponential technological growth, a third path of realization has emerged: the unintentional creation of agents capable of acting autonomously. Self-improving AI systems — from early experiments such as Auto-GPT (2023) to later projects like Ouroboros (2026), which independently rewrites its own source code and underwent more than 30 cycles of autonomous evolution within the first day of its existence - demonstrate that the need to create autonomous entities beyond their creator's control may also be a manifestation of the phenomenon being described. Of course, not every developer of autonomous AI is driven by destructive motives — but the very fact that such systems evoke enthusiasm rather than horror deserves psychological reflection.
Sources of the Need for the End of the World
Individual-psychological
Trauma and generalized aggression. Early traumatic experiences — systematic violence, rejection, prolonged isolation — can lay the foundation for hatred directed not at a specific abuser but at the world as a whole. A child unable to oppose an adult aggressor generalizes hostility: it is no longer this person who is dangerous, but reality as such. For a child who perceives their situation as imprisonment, global catastrophe may unconsciously appear as the only path to liberation — not an escape from the prison, but the destruction of the world in which the prison exists (as a child, I dreamed that a nuclear war would begin and destroy the boarding kindergarten I hated). Erich Fromm, in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, described this mechanism as "malignant aggression" – destructiveness that does not serve biological survival but has become an end in itself.
The need for revenge and the escalation of hatred. All-consuming hatred gives rise to the desire to destroy everything, because the destruction of the world is guaranteed to destroy the object of hatred along with it. This is a kind of "nuclear logic" of affect: if the target cannot be hit precisely, the entire territory can be obliterated. The psychological tendency toward generalization — from dislike of a specific person to hatred of a group, from a group to "people in general" — is well documented in studies of prejudice and dehumanization.
Depression and extended suicide. Suicidal tendencies can be generalized to the desire to destroy the entire world — what is sometimes called in psychiatry the fantasy of "extended suicide." When life is perceived as meaningless suffering and the main goal as utterly unattainable, aggression that finds no specific addressee turns upon the world as a whole. Thanatos, the Freudian death drive, in this interpretation goes beyond the individual and becomes cosmic.
Sadism. The capacity to derive pleasure from the suffering of others is a well-documented trait belonging to the so-called "dark tetrad" of personality. At the individual level, sadism is usually directed at specific victims, but in fantasy it can be scaled up to the global level: catastrophe as the spectacle of ultimate suffering. Significantly, sadistic fantasies are not necessarily recognized as such — they may take the form of "just retribution" or "purifying fire."
Existential
Meaninglessness and nihilism. When a person comes to perceive all goals — personal, social, species-wide — as arbitrary constructs programmed by evolution and culture, a particular state arises: not mere indifference, but a sense that a world devoid of meaning is also devoid of value. The assertion that "nothing matters" is imperceptibly transformed into "everything deserves to be destroyed." This is not a logical conclusion but an emotional consequence — and that is precisely why it is so resistant to rational critique. Albert Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus, begins with exactly this question: if the world is absurd, is suicide not the only philosophically honest response? And although Camus answers "no," the very framing of the question points to the reality of the destructive potential of nihilism.
The pursuit of transcendence through destruction. The need for an experience that transcends the everyday can paradoxically be channeled through destruction. Mircea Eliade described the archetype of "eternal return" — the cycle of destruction and rebirth of the world present in most mythologies. The dancing Shiva, who destroys the universe in order to renew it, is not merely a mythological image but a symbolic expression of a deep intuition: that genuine renewal is impossible without total destruction. When this intuition is transferred from the mythological to the literal plane, it becomes dangerous.
Social and Ideological
Religious fanaticism. The logic of "if the world rejects the truth, the world deserves destruction" is characteristic not only of marginal cults. The phenomenon of doomsday cults – from Jim Jones's Peoples Temple to Shoko Asahara's Aum Shinrikyo – demonstrates how apocalyptic convictions can pass from symbolism into action. But more important than mass incidents is the diffuse influence of apocalyptic expectations on decision-making: a person convinced of the imminent Second Coming will assess long-term risks differently.
The pursuit of absolute power. The struggle for world domination is an "all or nothing" strategy that may logically include global blackmail: the creation of a weapon of total destruction with a demand for universal submission. Herman Kahn showed that the appearance of several competing possessors of such weapons creates an unstable equilibrium in which use becomes a matter of time. Psychologically important is that the pursuit of absolute power and readiness for absolute destruction are two sides of the same coin: a person for whom only a world under their control is acceptable will, in the limit, prefer the absence of a world to a world ruled by another.
Alienation from humanity. When a person ceases to identify with the human species - through philosophical constructions, role identifications, or religious affiliations – other people may lose value or even acquire negative value. Contemporary culture offers many paths to such alienation: from transhumanism, which positions human nature as something to be overcome, to deep ecology, which views humanity as a pathogen of the biosphere. Neither of these currents is intrinsically destructive, but each can become a cognitive frame in which the death of humanity ceases to be a tragedy.
Youthful rebellion and the need for a "reset." The evolutionarily conditioned need of the younger generation to overturn hierarchies and depose authorities is a normal part of development. But under conditions in which legitimate channels of social change are perceived as blocked, this energy may be directed into a fantasy of total destruction of the existing order. "First destroy, then build anew" is a formula attractive precisely for its radicalism.
Paradoxical
The need to save the world. The desire to become the savior of humanity requires the existence of a threat to humanity. Nothing reinforces a sense of one's own significance like the role of savior – and this creates a non-obvious psychological investment in the existence of global threats. A person who identifies as a defender of the world may unconsciously contribute to the escalation of risks – not because they wish for catastrophe, but because they need a context in which their role remains significant.
The allure of danger. Ethologists have described the mechanism that compels animals to fix their attention on a source of threat – a reaction that in humans takes the form of fascination with danger. Apocalyptic scenarios captivate emotionally by the same mechanism that makes it impossible to look away from a car crash. This is not a desire for catastrophe in the strict sense, but an affective preparation that lowers psychological resistance.
Exohumanism. The most exotic form: the argument that the destruction of human civilization before the start of cosmic expansion will allow unique forms of intelligence to develop on other planets, untouched by terrestrial colonization. This is not a mass phenomenon, but it is illustrative as an example of how argumentation altruistic in its structure can lead to radically destructive conclusions – and of how the need for the end of the world can disguise itself as care for others.
Synergy of Factors
The sources described rarely act in isolation. The typical profile of a person who poses an existential threat includes a combination of several factors: for example, early trauma + high intelligence + a nihilistic worldview + access to dangerous technologies.
Desire to save the world and the feeling of self-importance
The desire to save the world (opposite to the one to end the world but psychologically close) and the idea that “exactly me” is living in times when the world ends can stem from the feeling of self-importance and overblown illusion of personal uniqueness.
Of course, if I am really unique, I am more likely in simulation, but if the illusion of uniqueness is widespread, it negates the update to simulation direction.
Conclusion
Understanding the psychological roots of the need for the end of the world is not an academic exercise. In an era when the technological capabilities of a single person approach those of states, and in some cases exceed them, the destructive motivation of a single individual may have civilizational consequences.
And if we are training AI on human values – what about the need for the end of the world? Is the fear of an aggressive superintelligence not someone's secret dream? Could it be that an AI that has learned our values will also assimilate the need for the end of the world? AI aligned with global destruction preference is equal to misaligned AI.
Disclaimer: I had this unfinished article for 20 years in a drawler. While I like the idea, I needed AI to make it readable. Early, completely human-written version in Russian is here: https://proza.ru/2009/07/11/761
TL;DR. Art tell us that the end of the world is a very attractive idea. There can be several psychological explanations. This increases x-risks.
Among the many traits of human culture, one of the most paradoxical is the dream of the end of the world. Apocalyptic narratives dominate mass culture: The Terminator, The Matrix, 2012, Armageddon, Don't Look Up - cinema returns again and again to the scenario of global annihilation.
The fact that in most of these films the catastrophe is averted should not mislead us. The happy ending is a frame that allows the destructive fantasy to be safely lived through. Just as interest in stories about serial killers reflects the shadow side of the psyche rather than a desire for safer streets, fascination with apocalyptic plots points to a deep-seated need that the viewer permits themselves to indulge in the first act, in order to symbolically neutralize it in the finale.
This motif was not born of cinema. Legends of the end of the world are present in virtually every religious tradition of humankind - from the biblical Apocalypse and the Norse Ragnarök to the Hindu Pralaya and the Aztec myth of the Five Suns. The subject is invariably the destruction of the entire world, not a single city or people. This cross-cultural universality points to the archetypal nature of the phenomenon – to something rooted in the very structure of the human psyche.
It is important to draw a line between the need for the end of the world and cognitive biases in the assessment of its risks. The latter – for example, the normalization of threat or hyper-optimism – are usually connected with an unwillingness to acknowledge real danger and are nourished by the desire that the world should continue to exist.
Manifestations
The need for the end of the world can be realized at various levels – from harmless to lethally dangerous.
At the symbolic level, it finds an outlet through culture: apocalyptic literature, films, video games, as well as through the subculture of "preppers," for whom preparation for catastrophe becomes a way of life. Here the destructive desire is sublimated, channeled into a safe direction.
At the behavioral level, a person may bring global catastrophe closer through their actions without being aware of the hidden motivation. This is possible in two cases. The first is a conscientious misjudgment of consequences: a scientist conducting a dangerous experiment may underestimate the risks partly because the deep part of their psyche does not resist a catastrophic outcome. The second is a rational strategy in which global catastrophe figures as one of the probable consequences - the classic example being the "doomsday machine" described by Herman Kahn and visualized by Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove.
The need to create autonomous entities
In the era of exponential technological growth, a third path of realization has emerged: the unintentional creation of agents capable of acting autonomously. Self-improving AI systems — from early experiments such as Auto-GPT (2023) to later projects like Ouroboros (2026), which independently rewrites its own source code and underwent more than 30 cycles of autonomous evolution within the first day of its existence - demonstrate that the need to create autonomous entities beyond their creator's control may also be a manifestation of the phenomenon being described. Of course, not every developer of autonomous AI is driven by destructive motives — but the very fact that such systems evoke enthusiasm rather than horror deserves psychological reflection.
Sources of the Need for the End of the World
Individual-psychological
Trauma and generalized aggression. Early traumatic experiences — systematic violence, rejection, prolonged isolation — can lay the foundation for hatred directed not at a specific abuser but at the world as a whole. A child unable to oppose an adult aggressor generalizes hostility: it is no longer this person who is dangerous, but reality as such. For a child who perceives their situation as imprisonment, global catastrophe may unconsciously appear as the only path to liberation — not an escape from the prison, but the destruction of the world in which the prison exists (as a child, I dreamed that a nuclear war would begin and destroy the boarding kindergarten I hated). Erich Fromm, in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, described this mechanism as "malignant aggression" – destructiveness that does not serve biological survival but has become an end in itself.
The need for revenge and the escalation of hatred. All-consuming hatred gives rise to the desire to destroy everything, because the destruction of the world is guaranteed to destroy the object of hatred along with it. This is a kind of "nuclear logic" of affect: if the target cannot be hit precisely, the entire territory can be obliterated. The psychological tendency toward generalization — from dislike of a specific person to hatred of a group, from a group to "people in general" — is well documented in studies of prejudice and dehumanization.
Depression and extended suicide. Suicidal tendencies can be generalized to the desire to destroy the entire world — what is sometimes called in psychiatry the fantasy of "extended suicide." When life is perceived as meaningless suffering and the main goal as utterly unattainable, aggression that finds no specific addressee turns upon the world as a whole. Thanatos, the Freudian death drive, in this interpretation goes beyond the individual and becomes cosmic.
Sadism. The capacity to derive pleasure from the suffering of others is a well-documented trait belonging to the so-called "dark tetrad" of personality. At the individual level, sadism is usually directed at specific victims, but in fantasy it can be scaled up to the global level: catastrophe as the spectacle of ultimate suffering. Significantly, sadistic fantasies are not necessarily recognized as such — they may take the form of "just retribution" or "purifying fire."
Existential
Meaninglessness and nihilism. When a person comes to perceive all goals — personal, social, species-wide — as arbitrary constructs programmed by evolution and culture, a particular state arises: not mere indifference, but a sense that a world devoid of meaning is also devoid of value. The assertion that "nothing matters" is imperceptibly transformed into "everything deserves to be destroyed." This is not a logical conclusion but an emotional consequence — and that is precisely why it is so resistant to rational critique. Albert Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus, begins with exactly this question: if the world is absurd, is suicide not the only philosophically honest response? And although Camus answers "no," the very framing of the question points to the reality of the destructive potential of nihilism.
The pursuit of transcendence through destruction. The need for an experience that transcends the everyday can paradoxically be channeled through destruction. Mircea Eliade described the archetype of "eternal return" — the cycle of destruction and rebirth of the world present in most mythologies. The dancing Shiva, who destroys the universe in order to renew it, is not merely a mythological image but a symbolic expression of a deep intuition: that genuine renewal is impossible without total destruction. When this intuition is transferred from the mythological to the literal plane, it becomes dangerous.
Social and Ideological
Religious fanaticism. The logic of "if the world rejects the truth, the world deserves destruction" is characteristic not only of marginal cults. The phenomenon of doomsday cults – from Jim Jones's Peoples Temple to Shoko Asahara's Aum Shinrikyo – demonstrates how apocalyptic convictions can pass from symbolism into action. But more important than mass incidents is the diffuse influence of apocalyptic expectations on decision-making: a person convinced of the imminent Second Coming will assess long-term risks differently.
The pursuit of absolute power. The struggle for world domination is an "all or nothing" strategy that may logically include global blackmail: the creation of a weapon of total destruction with a demand for universal submission. Herman Kahn showed that the appearance of several competing possessors of such weapons creates an unstable equilibrium in which use becomes a matter of time. Psychologically important is that the pursuit of absolute power and readiness for absolute destruction are two sides of the same coin: a person for whom only a world under their control is acceptable will, in the limit, prefer the absence of a world to a world ruled by another.
Alienation from humanity. When a person ceases to identify with the human species - through philosophical constructions, role identifications, or religious affiliations – other people may lose value or even acquire negative value. Contemporary culture offers many paths to such alienation: from transhumanism, which positions human nature as something to be overcome, to deep ecology, which views humanity as a pathogen of the biosphere. Neither of these currents is intrinsically destructive, but each can become a cognitive frame in which the death of humanity ceases to be a tragedy.
Youthful rebellion and the need for a "reset." The evolutionarily conditioned need of the younger generation to overturn hierarchies and depose authorities is a normal part of development. But under conditions in which legitimate channels of social change are perceived as blocked, this energy may be directed into a fantasy of total destruction of the existing order. "First destroy, then build anew" is a formula attractive precisely for its radicalism.
Paradoxical
The need to save the world. The desire to become the savior of humanity requires the existence of a threat to humanity. Nothing reinforces a sense of one's own significance like the role of savior – and this creates a non-obvious psychological investment in the existence of global threats. A person who identifies as a defender of the world may unconsciously contribute to the escalation of risks – not because they wish for catastrophe, but because they need a context in which their role remains significant.
The allure of danger. Ethologists have described the mechanism that compels animals to fix their attention on a source of threat – a reaction that in humans takes the form of fascination with danger. Apocalyptic scenarios captivate emotionally by the same mechanism that makes it impossible to look away from a car crash. This is not a desire for catastrophe in the strict sense, but an affective preparation that lowers psychological resistance.
Exohumanism. The most exotic form: the argument that the destruction of human civilization before the start of cosmic expansion will allow unique forms of intelligence to develop on other planets, untouched by terrestrial colonization. This is not a mass phenomenon, but it is illustrative as an example of how argumentation altruistic in its structure can lead to radically destructive conclusions – and of how the need for the end of the world can disguise itself as care for others.
Synergy of Factors
The sources described rarely act in isolation. The typical profile of a person who poses an existential threat includes a combination of several factors: for example, early trauma + high intelligence + a nihilistic worldview + access to dangerous technologies.
Desire to save the world and the feeling of self-importance
The desire to save the world (opposite to the one to end the world but psychologically close) and the idea that “exactly me” is living in times when the world ends can stem from the feeling of self-importance and overblown illusion of personal uniqueness.
Of course, if I am really unique, I am more likely in simulation, but if the illusion of uniqueness is widespread, it negates the update to simulation direction.
Conclusion
Understanding the psychological roots of the need for the end of the world is not an academic exercise. In an era when the technological capabilities of a single person approach those of states, and in some cases exceed them, the destructive motivation of a single individual may have civilizational consequences.
And if we are training AI on human values – what about the need for the end of the world? Is the fear of an aggressive superintelligence not someone's secret dream? Could it be that an AI that has learned our values will also assimilate the need for the end of the world? AI aligned with global destruction preference is equal to misaligned AI.
Disclaimer: I had this unfinished article for 20 years in a drawler. While I like the idea, I needed AI to make it readable. Early, completely human-written version in Russian is here: https://proza.ru/2009/07/11/761