I cannot think of a single disaster that could destroy humanity. Either we are too numerous, or too intelligent to be destroyed by these disastors
Comet: New technology is arising to counter these, which would ultimately make them undangerous.
Nuclear war: Every area of the world would have to be bombed, which is extremely unlikely. Politically, it would be almost imposible to launch that many nukes, to destroy mankind.
Can anyone think of something that could destroy the world? Funny ideas accepted too!
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Sun goes supernova.
Game very OVER.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Ahhh yes, but that will be in about 5 Billion years. By then, we will have colonized other solar systems, and saved ourselves from this disatser.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Well, really. The sun goes nova. Better still, a nearby star (as in, within a few hundred parsecs) goes supernova. Some idiot makes a black hole large enough to survive for some period, and drops it into the centre of the Earth. An alien race drops a large nickel-iron asteroid into the Sun - solar flares, yay - or the Earth. (And I do think a comet shield is some decades away; you don't have to have aliens, even. Right now, if an asteroid was headed for the Sun, I don't think we'd detect it.)
There is no theoretical upper limit on the size of fusion bombs. So in principle you only need one. Or put a rocket on the Moon and knock it out of orbit, so it hits the Earth. Now, that would be a bang.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Are there any stars that will go supernova soon? Negatory according to what I've read. How do you create a black hole without destroying the Earth first? That kind of technology won't be around for a very long time. An asteroid would have to be so unimaginably gigantic to destroy the sun, or even make a change, I think we would dectect it. Besides, how would an asteroid get that big? Knock the moon out of orbit with a rocket? That would have to be a VERY powerful rocket.
There, I have annilhated your arguments. Hahaha!
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Yes, I have a disaster. Picture this:
1) The Constitution is amended to once again allow presidents to have as many terms as they are elected.
2) President Bush is re-elected a few more times and decides that he had taken most of the power anyway, why not take all of it?
3) America becomes a dictatorship.
4) President Bush leads the world into World War III ending in nuclear armageddon.
5) Radiation and other sources of pollution from the war cause the atmosphere to gain an even larger hole.
6) The polar caps are melted, the temperature rises everywhere, the world is flooded.
7) The atmosphere continues to shrink and eventually the planet is fried by the Sun's rays.
Any questions?
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Yes; will there still be icecream?
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
No, Bush will ban ice cream and have anyone who makes/buys/sells/eats it be publicly executed.
Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :
Are you high?
And to think, I just came here to snark that if something did wipe out the human race, I'm sure it would be Pres. Bush's fault.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Our sun asplode.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Darn! What about monkeys and cheese?
And Cheese Monkeys?
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Are we talking about the complete extinction of the race, or the collapse of human civilization?
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Wow, that post must make me look REALLY high.
Either, Tom.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
quote:Originally posted by smitty: Are you high?
And to think, I just came here to snark that if something did wipe out the human race, I'm sure it would be Pres. Bush's fault.
No, I am not high. Though, I have been accused of being a stoner a number of times. Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
SteveRogers: Unless the only living humans are clustered in California and Florida, the melting of the polar ice caps won't kill us all.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Must you ruin the fun? Big meanie!
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
Yellowstone erupting would be a pretty big deal. Between the immediate effect of wiping out the west coast, the tremors and shockwaves all over the globe, the economic disruption, and the dust and ash it would kick up... I can see that being pretty devastating. And there's really nothing we can do about it if it decides to go.
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
Our sun's not going to go supernova. It's going to become a red giant and burn up the Earth. So Earth asplode, but not sun.
Apparently last time a Yellowstone size event happened, only about a hundred people survived...
I think we should build some moonbases, like, now, already. Just in case.
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
psshah. The biggest danger is if Chuck Noris ever decides to stop being lazy.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I bet that the world would end when a giant, black cat crosses its path.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
The world will end when the Cylons come back.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
"We'll all go together when we go, suffused in an incandescent glow. They'll be no pain and misery when the earth is our rotisserie. Yes we'll all go together when we go!"
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I think there are a number of things -- nuclear war, flu epidemics, widespread famine -- that could, either alone or (as is more likely) in conjunction with each other, effectively shatter and then destroy human civilization. And once that civilization is destroyed, we'd become vulnerable to any number of normal extinction events.
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
Another season of "The Simple Life" ought to do it.
--Enigmatic
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I think that life as we know it shall end when George Lucas's next adaptation of Star Wars comes out. When does the three-dimensional version come out?
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I don't think we're really that close to having a viable asteroid/comet survival plan, unless we pull a Deep Impact and burrow underground until the crap passes us by. But if it's big enough, that won't be enough.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:Comet: New technology is arising to counter these, which would ultimately make them undangerous.
I have serious doubts as to our ability in the near future(next 20 years) to be able to automatically detect comets/asteroids in enough time to be able to launch something capable of doing anything about it.
What are these new technologies you are talking about?
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Didn't Ronald Reagan propose the Star Wars defense for this very reason?
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Peak Oil.
Peak Water.
Another George W. Bush term. *snicker, snark, snort*
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Also, The Rapture.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Star Wars was for point defense against ballistic missiles. It'd have no chance of ever denting an asteroid or comet.
Now, if earth were attacked by the Death Star...
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
I believe he did.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
eros- You stole my answer.
Lyrhawn- Was that what it was for? I just remember it didn't turn out. At all.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
Hmm, a miniature black hole passing through the Earth could do us all in. We have observed holes as small as pluto in the past and they are hard to detect.
And I want to see a Death Star built by humans. Or even better a Dysons Sphere.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
You never will.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
Which one? A Dysons Sphere or a big bad planet desroying space station?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Either. Both.
There is no way that humans will be able to build either of those within the next 100 years.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Are there enough building materials in the solar system to build a Dyson sphere at earth orbit? It would require something like 2.81497*10^29 cubic meters of material if the shell of the sphere averaged one meter thick. That would need something like 1.65197*10^15 earths' worth of material.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
Hmm, true. But I can always hope that Humanity will eventually build a Dysons Sphere around our star within the the next 700 or at least the next 1000.
And a Dysons Sphere is a giant structure around a star or a collection of satalites surounding one.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Ummmm, 700 to 1000 years? Try about 5 to 7000 years.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
Hmm, lets hope for a goal of 3000 at the most.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
<marks datebook for project deadline>
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
Well, the Enderverse ahd spread to a hundred worlds in only 3000 years. So that might provide enough materials for its construction. And if Ender could do it, so can we. (minus the faster than light communication)
Edit: oops
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
It's actually 3000 years.
*suffles feeet*
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Reticulum, your 1000th post!
Mazel Tov.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
Which would you rather see Reticulum. A Dyson's Sphere or a Death Star? Or a combination of both?
Posted by String (Member # 6435) on :
The only danger to the human race is global warming. We should start to counter it now by sending the world into nuclear winter to balance things out.
*edited because i forgot how to spell to
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
A dyson swarm is, of the massively unlikely ideas, the most likely.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Mazel Tov! I would rather see a Dyson sphere, which I believe ranks as a type II on the Kardashev Scale.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
quote:Originally posted by String: The only danger to the human race is global warming. We should start to counter it now by sending the world into nuclear winter to balance things out.
*edited because i forgot how to spell to
Umm, you do know that would kill almost all Earthly life. Right? Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
quote:Originally posted by SteveRogers: Lyrhawn- Was that what it was for? I just remember it didn't turn out. At all.
Using spaced based lasers to shoot down ballistic missiles basically. It never went anywhere.
Posted by Advent 115 (Member # 8914) on :
And I know Reticulum. Wouldn't it be awsome!
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Well, humans are already causing a mass extinction now, so why prolong it?
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
It would Advent! Also, Lyrhawn; the laser missile thing is starting to get some back and get going. or at least, missile protection from space is.
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
We could be pretty screwed (and I mean SERIOUSLY screwed) if a really deadly and incurable disease like AIDS or ebola mutated into an airborne strain. Theoretically, such a thing is possible. However, the human race probably wouldn't go extinct. For any given infection there's some small percentage of the population who are immune just because they're lucky enough to have a random mutation in their genes. Those people would survive and repopulate the planet, and the new human race would inherit their immunity to the disease that wiped out the old.
Really, it could happen any time. It could begin tomorrow... But probably not.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
AIDS will eventually be cured. Ebola, would eventually be isolated. Notice anything similar about these diseases? Yes, they come from Africa; the hub for bad diseases.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reticulum: Are there any stars that will go supernova soon? Negatory according to what I've read.
Well, that settles that, then.
quote:How do you create a black hole without destroying the Earth first? That kind of technology won't be around for a very long time.
Excuse me, but thou speakest nonsense. The LHC will create perfectly good black holes, they'll just be so small that they'll disappear in a flash of Hawking radiation. You just need to scale that technology up a bit.
quote:An asteroid would have to be so unimaginably gigantic to destroy the sun, or even make a change, I think we would detect it.
Wrong. It just needs to be going rather fast. A few million tons should do it, if you fling it at something close to c. You'd be able to see the flare on Alpha Centauri; it would wipe out anything on Earth with a central nervous system. So you'd be ok.
quote:Knock the moon out of orbit with a rocket? That would have to be a VERY powerful rocket.
Gosh, do you really think so? I notice you didn't mention the Really Big Bomb.
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
Hey, evidence suggests that the human race started in Africa too.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Neo, that was one of the funniest things I have heard in a very long time.
Ah yes, and King. As for the Black hole, thatis really what I meant. It really will be quite a while before we can create a sizeable black hole. First we could not put it on Earth, as it would destroy it; second, it would take a time to get the instruments to where you would vreate it.
About the Asteroids, you are absolutley right there.
As for the rocket, well, I don't think a rocket that big and powerful COULD be constructed.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reticulum: It would Advent! Also, Lyrhawn; the laser missile thing is starting to get some back and get going. or at least, missile protection from space is.
To what are you referring?
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
quote:First we could not put it on Earth, as it would destroy it
Yes. And the thread was about how you could destroy the human race. So your point is...?
quote:As for the rocket, well, I don't think a rocket that big and powerful COULD be constructed.
That is because you are not thinking clearly. You just need to accelerate stuff to the Moon's escape velocity, which is not so much as all that - 1.47 miles per second, which indeed is within the range of high-end rifles. Then you just shoot bits of Moon in the right direction. It doesn't have to be done all at once.
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
A sufficiently large body colliding with earth would do it. And we know there are such bodies.
I hadn't thought of the sun collision, but that would do it too.
So would another "Sweatin' to the Oldies" video by Richard Simmons.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Oh, you're good King. But I suppose you are right. I tip my hat to you.
It's sobering to see a list of 774 "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids" as NASA terms them.
Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
This is SO the end of the world...
quote: Like that time, eh, chaps? Righto.
quote: But I'm le tired. Well, have a nap. Then fire ze missiles!
Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
It's " 'bout that time, eh, chaps?" for a start.
Reticulum, your age is really, really, really showing in this thread. Really. Why don't you just tell everyone?
Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :
Oh, not if it was done right, you big baby. Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Hawking once noted that the odds of an asteroid large enough to destroy the human race, actually striking the earth is small, but not miniscule. We can develop destructive technologies that would be able to destroy such inbound asteroids. However the odds that some human would abuse that system, and turn it down upon earth, is much greater than the odds that we would be hit by an asteroid. Hence Not building space defences is actually better for our survival.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:However the odds that some human would abuse that system, and turn it down upon earth, is much greater than the odds that we would be hit by an asteroid.
Brought to you by the Comittee of Pulling Numbers Out Of Our ****/Ear.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Right, but we can deflect asteroids instead of destroying them. I suspect that turning the solar sail method of deflection against another group of humans would be inconvenient. Sure, we could aim an asteroid at earth, but I doubt our control is good enough to hit the countries we don't like and avoid countries we do.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
quote:Originally posted by Shigosei: Right, but we can deflect asteroids instead of destroying them. I suspect that turning the solar sail method of deflection against another group of humans would be inconvenient. Sure, we could aim an asteroid at earth, but I doubt our control is good enough to hit the countries we don't like and avoid countries we do.
Assuming we ever could get such a system in place, that is, attaching solar sails to an asteroid, it would have to be done very, very far away from the planet for it to have any actual impact on the asteroid's path.
Also keep in mind that for an asteroid to be small enough to destroy a city or country and NOT be big enough to have globally devastating effects is a tricky equation. Anything bigger than something that could blow up Orange County is going to have lasting effects on the world at large. But anything that small is going to be extremely hard to land solar sails on, and to control, as, being that small it will move much more dramatically than an asteroid seven miles wide would.
But assuming we COULD land solar sails on a tiny asteroid way out in the middle of nowhere and direct it towards a specific city or country, we could defintely tell you where it was going to hit, or at least with a fair degree of accuracy. The problem would be refining some sort of guidance system that would translate commands into movements of the solar sail that would direct the course of the asteroid along a desired path.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
The notion that we are at any level approaching the ability to even detect incoming asteroids is actually ludicrous.
The truth is that there are millions of asteroids in the sky, and all move in unpredictable ways. There are countless asteroids passing near the Earth, which we never see or hear about. The common perception of modern astronomy treats the everyday life of the astronomer like it does the photographer for National Geographic, finely dileniated and backlit stereo imaged views of glistening comets and rudy asteroids, with helpfully intuitive computer mapping software that can exactly predict the movements of extraterestrial objects over long spans of time, ala "Deep Impact."
The real world is hardly so exciting, and in fact for all the know large asteroids in the solar system, astronomers predict the existance of millions more, numbers impossible to gauge, with lives impossible to track.
So anyway, all these gaget ideas are nice, but the actual likelihood of even detecting the asteroid is pretty small, despite what you'd like to believe.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
This thread reminded me: I felt my Very First Earthquake this Friday.
It felt like a subway train going underneath me, but it wasn't because I was home in Suburbia where there are no subways.
I think I like my earthquakes small and rumbly, and they can stay that way, if you don't mind.
And I think the world can be destroyed in a number of ways, but I think that if it happens it's going to be a numerous factors combined, such as war + environment + disease that do us in.
Barring the "asplosion" of the sun and a major asteroid, we're not going to go out in one fell swoop, rather in increments, like slices of salami.
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
I haven't read the whole thread, but has there been a differentiation between a disaster which would destroy Earth (thereby wiping out the human race) and a disaster which would simply wipe out the human race and leave Earth inhabitable?
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Just leave Humans gone. Asertoids could probably do it, though I bet they couldn't destroy us COMPLETELY.
Posted by Kristen (Member # 9200) on :
I definitely agree that a single calamity would have to be inconceivable awful to do the trick. However, that would then imply humans would live inifinitely (unless we can't in 5 billion years figure out a way to get away from the Sun, but I have faith in us. we're wily creatures).
If humans live infinitely, then there is the possibility, which is practically zero, yet still exists, of all forms of catastrophes occuring at once: a deadly disease, a nuclear war, a few asteroids, a major volcano, a drastic climate shift.
Funny how easy it is for me to think morbidly when I have overdue work...
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Yes, 'tis the downfall of man...
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
1) A population of humans could evolve into a more advanced species that would then systematically eradicate us inferior homo sapiens sapiens.
1a) Or, more happily, we could just evolve, live peacefully, and Humans would quietly fade away.
2) The hole in the ozone layer could widen dramatically, allowing in far more radiation and dramatically increasing mutation rates in viruses. The fall of man, and animal life on this planet, is heralded in by a disease with unprecedented adaptive ability.
3) Vogons, the Empire, Martians, the Machines, take your pick. Oh, or all the clowns finally get together and decide they've been laughed at too long, and the bastards are going down. Some kind of massive murder-suicide pact.
4) Simultaneous spontaneous combustion.
Posted by String (Member # 6435) on :
quote:Originally posted by Advent 115:
quote:Originally posted by String: The only danger to the human race is global warming. We should start to counter it now by sending the world into nuclear winter to balance things out.
*edited because i forgot how to spell to
Umm, you do know that would kill almost all Earthly life. Right?
Yeah, i thought this was a joke thread I heard on CNN today that the ninja were going to attack the lumberjacks. Bad enough by itself, I got really scared when i found out the pirates were helping the ninja, and the long time allies of the lumberjacks, the vikings, are sitting this one out.
I don't think I need to tell you that if the lumberjacks are taken out of the game, our economy will collapse. Plus, we ww'll have o clean up after ourselves with leaves and pine-cones.
[ February 27, 2006, 09:03 AM: Message edited by: String ]
Posted by SC Carver (Member # 8173) on :
Everyone knows the all human life will end in the year 2147, when Steve, a failed genetic engineer turned exterminator creates a virus that wipes out all cockroaches. The surprising offshoot we find out; cockroach dung had actually been keeping mildew in check for millions of years and without it we can find no way to stop the mildew, which promptly wipes out the entire food supply. Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
Where did you come up with this?
Posted by SC Carver (Member # 8173) on :
Just doing my impression of douglas adams.
Posted by Kristen (Member # 9200) on :
According to the Mayans, we're all supposed to go out on December 21 or 23, 2012...
Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :
And they have credibility! Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
It's all pish-posh.
Posted by Kristen (Member # 9200) on :
Well, to their credit, they are the only culture I know of with the long-sightedness/gumption/arrogance to actually pick a date, although they did not choose to enlighten us on the specifics.
That being said, I don't forsee myself hanging out in a bunker in the middle of a deserted corn field come 6 years from now...;-)
Posted by Shepherd (Member # 7380) on :
When the reavers come, you can't say the Mayans didn't warn you.
Posted by Reticulum (Member # 8776) on :
I can, but I can't say they weren't right.
...
Wait, did that make sense? Posted by Shepherd (Member # 7380) on :
No.
Aaaaaaaahhhh Motherland!
Posted by Palliard (Member # 8109) on :
In all seriousness, a few scenarios have been posited in which the entire galaxy could be destroyed.
Possibly the more famous is the scenario posited by Larry Niven 30 years ago: that we're living in a Seyfert Galaxy, and when the core explodes, that's it for life in the Milky Way.
More recent speculation has centered around the idea of Gamma Ray Burst, which have been blamed for the Ordovician mass extinction.
Either way I wouldn't worry about it too much. You'll never get out of this life alive. Posted by Althai (Member # 9275) on :
There's always the buggers. Or worse, the descolada.
David
Posted by Althai (Member # 9275) on :
quote:More recent speculation has centered around the idea of Gamma Ray Burst, which have been blamed for the Ordovician mass extinction.
As I read that article, the posited cause of extinction was the depletion of the ozone layer due to the GRB. So we would probably be ok - we might have to grow our food in greenhouses, and spend much of our lives indoors or slathered with SPF 500 sunblock, and would probably lose a lot of people to starvation, but the human race would survive.
As for a core explosion, we could always eject the solar system from the milky way, and send it through intergalactic space.
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Really. Why don't you just tell everyone?
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