Every civilization has ended in collapse. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome. All were sophisticated cultures brought low by unanticipated forces greater than themselves. What forces hasten the collapse of our civilization? Not nuclear war, or climate change, or even an asteroid strike. For millions of years the supergiant star Betelgeuse has waited patiently on Orion's right shoulder. Now its moment has arrived. It severs the single thread suspending Western civilization over a great abyss. Something we take for granted disappears forever. Everything changes now that it is gone. Electronic...