How will humans' time on Earth end?
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Considering how stupid we are, and how politicians actively work against our environmental issues and ignore scientific results, it doesn't seem unlikely that we destroy ourselves in the near future (wild guess: 100-200 years).
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That's overly optimistic, really. Expect a rising death toll, but don't expect anything near the extinction of the entire human race. Even if we accelerated climate change, there'd be plenty of places left to live, just not much civilization to occupy those with. Even if World Wars 3 to 10 happened and the world's entire nuclear arsenal is thrown into the mix (the first being a bit more likely than the second), making the whole Earth entirely uninhabitable for people is quite a big challenge. Though not one we should rise to, obviously.
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i think inhabitable places are not even the main problem. if most of our plants die because of extreme climate change, we simply starve. or even choke (lack of oxygen). sure, this would take a little more than a climate change of one or two degrees. but as i understand it, these atmospheric changes scientists warn us about might accelerate at an exponential rate. so while we barely notice any differences right now, it might all go pretty fast at some point in the future (and we won't be able to stop it, since we will have passed the point of no return).
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One big issue is that models of climate change are still under heavy development, especially when it comes to long term predictions. We have a good handle on how temperatures will increase, and a good idea of the short to medium term consequences, but the ultimate outcome is far less certain because there are so many factors and unknowns about how they influence each other (not the least of which would be our own actions). Current scientific consensus doesn't consider a runaway scenario a la Venus likely.
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well, i was simply offering a possibility. i wasn't claiming that this will definitely happen. but from the choices that were offered, i think it's the most likely, together with the deadly disease (ok, that one seems more probable, but i like talking about the environment better ^^).
as you said yourself, we can't make accurate long term predictions yet. so the end result might very well be catastrophic enough to wipe us out. if that is in fact unlikely, then that's good. but i wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of total destruction. ;)
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Problem is that there hasn't been planetary level total extinction since life began. So I doubt one will happen anyway.
Not that it doesn't mean reasonable possibility of few billions dead and human population dropping to low levels...
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the total extinction of a single race did happen quite often already. so while we certainly have awesome surviving skills thanks to our technology, i wouldn't say it's impossible. if we really manage to destroy our atmosphere, maybe all out technology can't help us anymore then.
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Entropy Finally Corners Us (~100 trillion years from now)
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Environmental unsustainability is a thing already.
I guess the strongest specie will survive.
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I voted solar expansion. I like to think I'm an optimist, but it's really the pessimist telling me that humans are too tenacious to get wiped out even by their own shortsightedness. Oh sure, we'll rack up a few hundred million unnecessary deaths along the way, but there's still a good chance we'll pull through. Of course it's by no means a sure thing; there's a real risk of destroying advanced civilization as we know it, leaving us easy pickings for the next dinosaur-scale natural threat. But hey, let's accentuate the positive.
There's one other option that I consider more likely than the obvious candidates (nukes, climate change etc.) in terms of possibly bringing about the end rather than merely being horribly destructive, if we achieve it (and it's a big if): the successful development of independent artificial intelligent life that effectively makes humanity obsolete, and pushes us out in the race for resources. I don't mean the cliched Skynet scenario where are new robot overlords launch nukes at us in a deliberate attempt to wipe us out, but a far more peaceful revolution where humanity simply slowly dies out or is relegated to tribal pockets of irrelevance while our progeny becomes the relevant next step in evolution. Any rebellion we'd like to start would be dead in the water, because we've made our own civilization dependent on them -- they'd be the ones holding the keys to the kingdom. The "not with a bang but a whimper" option. Of course, we might just stick around as relics, and we might even have a good time doing it, so it doesn't need to be the end as such.
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Humans will destroy themselves and well, planet earth will last till the end of our galaxy.
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I'm split between Nuclear War and Environmental Unsustainability. Humanity is getting too stupid and greedy to survive until anything else happens. So basically the question goes down to if there is gonna be a person (or group of people) put in power actually idiotic and inconsiderate of the consequences enough to cause a Nuclear War before the Environmental Unsustainability kicks in. Either way it's definitely gonna be one of the two, but since I'm cynical I'm gonna assume the answer to that question is "yes" and go with Nuclear War for the vote.
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What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?
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"When the stars are right", R'lyeh will rise from the sea, never to sink again, and Cthulhu will awaken and revel across the world, "ravening for delight"
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"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents."
-- Attributed to Nathaniel Borenstein
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I voted for Dolphins. We are bound for another economical crisis soon enough, as the bubble is rising again and its about to burst and this time, might end with World War 3 - The Final Showdown, and thousands of years later Dolphins will emerge as the superior species and ..they will fuck everything up as well ;p
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Mars Attacks! Trading Cards
http://web.archive.org/web/20150301015412/http://www.tkinter.org/Stuff/MarsAttacksCards/
I remembered this for some reason.
Also, even if "κ" flew from outer space, please do not attack it. ...只
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Potatoes with dolphin appendages or Dolphins with thumbs?
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zeus will fly down and say 'Lol, you guessed the wrong religion' and blow us up.
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There was already many asteroids near the earth so it is exactly possible to die through a another big bang.
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A disease kills all the women in the world. Meanwhile men develop artificial 3D waifus to make the wait more pleasant (insert here EsE's video)
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Why develop digital waifus when people already just use grapefruit?
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Maybe Trump's ego will get so big that it will smother the whole planet.
At this point, I wouldn't be suprised of anything. I'm being misanthropist again...
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Sadly humans are way too hard to kill off. So I go with time when any life on planet is simply unsustainable.
Then again, I hope that true end would be today, or sooner.
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The important question is : Are you [we] READY for that?
Because it doesn't matter how or when, we all will die soon or later
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So, one fine day, the world is going to see its last humans, and may even end itself too. How do you think it'll happen?
EDIT: We are talking about the end of humanity here, not the end of the Earth. It could be that we spead our nets wide and outlast the end of the planet. Or, we just kill our ourselves tomorrow. Editing to preserve the rigorous and highly scientific nature of this forum poll.
lXXyP
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