The focus of this course would be to explore the concept of apocalypse through the examination of prophecy (biblical, year 2000, Maya 12/21/12 scare, etc), the consideration of other parapsychological phenomena (and the psychology of belief) and real, hypothetical and imaginary apocalypitic threats from nuclear warfare (with ties to physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science), biological warfare and terrorism, threats from space (an astronomy connection), biology of zombies and parasitic mind-control, population biology, overpopulation and population crash (Malthus, Darwin, Social Darwinism, etc), nanotechnology, artificial intelligence (compscie and engineering), etc. There is a lot of potential for interdisciplinary connections with Philosophy and Religious Studies, English, History, Art, Mathematics.
Useful links:
The Edge (online magazine discussing intellectual topics--including some about threats to modern humanity) https://www.edge.org
The Long Now Foundation (Foundation encouraging thinking about long-term issues): http://longnow.org/
"Things Fall Apart" exhibit at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (museum exhibit discussing the decay of manmade objects: https://www.chemheritage.org/things-fall-apart
Digitized video of nuclear detonations and impacts (Youtube)
Wikipedia:
Threats to human existence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_extinction
Global catastrophic risk:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk#Ecological_disaster
Technological
Nuclear holocaust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_holocaust
Nanotechnology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo
Advanced artificial intelligence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence
Biological
Biological Warfare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_warfare
Bioterrorism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioterrorism
Pandemic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic
Biotechnology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_risk
Ecological
Overpopulation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation
Global Climate Change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_global_warming
Runaway Climate Change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_climate_change
Environmental Disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_disaster
Zombies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie#Zombie_apocalypse
The Serpent and the Rainbow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow_(book)
Brain altering parasitic infection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior-altering_parasite_or_parasitoid
Toxoplasmosis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasma gondii: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii
Eschatology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology
Apocalyptism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypticism
Mayan Apocaplypse (2012): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_apocalypse
Islamic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_eschatology
Hindu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_eschatology
Jewish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_eschatology
Christian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_eschatology
Four Horseman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse
Buddhist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_eschatology
Taoist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hong_(Taoist_eschatology)
Zoroastrian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frashokereti
Apocalypse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse
List of predicted dates of apocalyptic events: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events