January 28, 2026
Snooze or lose?
Who sets the Doomsday Clock?
Scientists set it—commenters say it’s vibes, clicks, and an endless alarm
TLDR: Scientists set the Doomsday Clock to a record 85 seconds to midnight. Commenters blasted it as alarmist vibes, questioned evidence we’re closer than the Cold War, and joked about hitting snooze—arguing this hype warps public trust and nudges fear-driven policy.
The famous Doomsday Clock just ticked to 85 seconds to midnight, its closest ever, set by a 17-person board led by University of Chicago physicist Daniel Holz at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It’s meant as a wake‑up call—especially after a Nobel laureate gathering warned that nukes, fraying global cooperation, and AI in warfare are pushing us toward catastrophe. But online, the crowd answered with a resounding: “Snooze.”
The top vibe in the comments? Alarmist hype. One user slammed the clock as “a mechanism to garner attention,” another said it’s been “so consistently high” it’s basically meaningless, and a third argued the hype erodes shared reality. Skeptics demanded receipts: are we really closer than the Cold War? Multiple voices said today’s tensions don’t match the era of hair‑trigger superpowers, calling the execution “silly” even if the idea is interesting. The thread turned into a roast of anxiety branding: “It measures vibes, not danger,” “where’s the evidence,” and “who keeps cranking the drama dial?”
Then came the memes: jokes about hitting the snooze button, 85 seconds as “my ramen timer,” and the clock being set by “vibes engineers.” In short, the internet isn’t buying the apocalypse aesthetic—the real ticking sound is public trust, and it’s getting louder.
Key Points
- •On January 27, 2026, the Bulletin set the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, its closest-ever setting.
- •The clock is set annually by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board of 17 scientists and policy experts, chaired by Daniel Holz.
- •In January prior to the 2025 assembly, the time was announced as 89 seconds to midnight at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.
- •The 2025 Nobel Laureate Assembly at the University of Chicago aimed to produce a declaration urging world leaders to reduce nuclear risks and was sponsored in part by the Bulletin.
- •The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by Chicago-based Manhattan Project scientists; the clock was farthest from midnight in 1991 at 17 minutes, and since 2010 has moved only closer.