# What Can Humanity Do Now for the Next Billion Years by Toby Ord > “What can humanity do right now that will make the biggest difference over the next billion years?” > **— Toby Ord**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [The Last Question](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27626) — Edge published this exact, continuous passage in its 2018 Annual Question collection, *WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2018 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2018 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|Never Going to Make It!]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Nolan's Odyssey]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Deep Time|Deep Time]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Deep Time|Deep Time]] - [[wiki/Species-Level Maturation|Species-Level Maturation]] - [[wiki/Major Evolutionary Transitions|Major Evolutionary Transitions]] - [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “What can humanity do right now that will make the biggest difference over the next billion years?” — Toby Ord, 2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-toby-ord-humanity-now-next-billion-years ```