am an assiduous reader of John Casti books. He is a real scientific intellectual.?br /> assim Nicholas Taleb, New York Times bestselling author of Fooled by Randomnessasti is at his best in presenting difficult philosophical ideas enthusiastically and lucidly, and in presenting everyday examples to illustrate them.?br />?em>New York Times Book ReviewIn his highly provocative and grippingly readable book, X-Events, author John Casti brilliantly argues that today advanced, overly complex societies have grown highly vulnerable to extreme events that will ultimately topple civilization like a house of cards. Like Nassim Taleb The Black Swan meets Jared Diamond Collapse, Casti book provides a much-needed wake-up callounding a fascinating and frightening warning about civilized society inability to recover from a global catastrophe?demonstrating how humankind could be blasted back into the Stone Age by a meteor strike, nuclear apocalypse, worldwide contagion, or any number of unforeseeable X-Events.