BANG CRUNCH SHRIEK WHIMPER by Brooklyn Cobb
On View March 19 through April 25, 2026
In Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2002 paper, ‘Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards,’ Bostrom introduces four categories of potential world ending events: Bangs, Crunches, Shrieks and Whimpers.
Bangs are instant and complete destruction. For example, an asteroid hits the earth or The Simulation is turned off.
Crunches are incomplete world endings in which life remains but civilization as we know it is never rebuilt. Small societies may be rebuilt during a Nuclear Winter, but those humans will never do a cross country road trip or go apple picking.
Shrieks involve an intense narrowing or obliteration of potential futures. In a world where we would be able to upload ourselves but then we are then faced with the mathematical truth that we can’t live out every potential timeline and humans then decide to retire.
Although the universe is seemingly infinite, the number of planets that humans and earth life can survive on are finite. A Whimper occurs when we exhaust all the resources we need to survive.
In every apocalyptic iteration ranging from climate catastrophe to a flawed superintelligence takeover, people die of old age and babies are born until the very last minute.
In each person’s life there are distinct moments where the world crunches and we are forced to move on and cannot return to what once was.
These photographs are a study of echoing shrieks: of viruses, school shootings and oppressive systems, in a world where neglected buildings vacantly rot while new ones climb upward across the street.
