Are Humans Extinction Proof?

[sophie]

I would be shocked if humans weren't extinct in 2 million years, from a biological standpoint.

Then what the hell are we arguing about?

 

[emzie]

Then what the hell are we arguing about?

I'm not sure. But I think you're wrong.

 

[Perfection]

"Hey T-Rex, you know that science stuff you hate... yeah that could have saved us!"

T-Rex loves science, for reals. We all know that.

 

[Masada]

You think so?

 

[Miles Teg]

Humans are extinction proof as we possibly can be. As long as the Earth is physically capable of supporting human life and no malevolent non-humans decide to exterminate us, we aren't going anywhere.

Of course, humanity could always go extinct if we experienced enough genetic drift (or intentional modification) to qualify as a new species, but that's not saying much. Other than that, only real threats to the continued existence of Homo Sapiens Sapiens are on an astronomical scale.

Note that when I state that humans won't go extinct, I don't mean that an apocalyptic, end of civilization scenario is impossible. If our worst fears about the environment or nuclear warfare play out you can kiss the modern world goodbye for the next couple millenia. I'm just saying that a tiny fraction of humans would survive it, and may or may not be able to rebuild.

 

[timtofly]

From this article, I would say cows would live a little longer after the last man is around to help them do their daily business. Even longer if they realize they do not need humans providing for them.

 

[IglooDame]

I can think of a few scenarios that could eliminate homo sapiens, some of them created by us. Once we have self-sustaining colonies outside Earth's gravity well and spread to other Sol planets/moons, the number of possible scenarios drops markedly. Get a couple self-sustaining colonies on other star systems, and really the only extinction event left is a (relatively) local supernova.

 

[Dreadnought]

I'd say, as long as the Earth as a rock is here, then humans will be here. That being said, once we can settle another planet permanently, humanity will survive as long as the universe does (barring, of course, weird sci-fi outcomes, such as galactic genocide by cyborg lifeforms).

 

[snarzberry]

I can think of a few scenarios that could eliminate homo sapiens, some of them created by us. Once we have self-sustaining colonies outside Earth's gravity well and spread to other Sol planets/moons, the number of possible scenarios drops markedly. Get a couple self-sustaining colonies on other star systems, and really the only extinction event left is a (relatively) local supernova.

You're forgetting systematic eradication by advanced little green men with big green lasers.

 

[Leifmk]

Other than that, only real threats to the continued existence of Homo Sapiens Sapiens are on an astronomical scale.

Or a sufficiently significant geological scale, I should think. You'd basically need some kind of event that either made the Earth's atmosphere no longer breathable, or disrupted the ecosystem badly enough to drive more or less all multicellular life into extinction. Stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Eh, that's a given. We can nuke meteorites now.

While certainly true, I don't see that nuking objects from space after they have already survived impact with the surface of the Earth is all that conducive to escaping threats of extinction. Nuking asteroids while they are still far enough away that the detonation could prevent sizable chunks of them from hitting us would be more useful. I don't think our capacity for that is very great, especially since we don't even have usable space shuttles anymore.

 

[Cannae]

I would be shocked if humans weren't extinct in 2 million years, from a biological standpoint.

Agreed, everything becomes extinct at some point. Civilization and culture would be more likely to disappear before humans would.

 

[IglooDame]

You're forgetting systematic eradication by advanced little green men with big green lasers.

Or big green aliens with big blue lasers. Doesn't matter. We'll infiltrate their mothership and disable their shields, or put a torpedo down an unshielded exhaust vent, or use a nuclear-bomb-powered ship to take out their fleet, or get them to surrender to us once they realize that we have shared genetic material, or something.

 

[Eukaryote]

I think we've gotten to a point where our only threat to our own survival is ourselves.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Dinosaurs existed on earth for 200 million years. It seems find and dandy to say we're extinction proof now, but who knows what the Earth is going to look like even 1 or 2 million years down the line.

Dinosaurs weren't one species, and for all we know we can be pretty sure they didn't have technological civilization.

100% extinction proof is really an exaggeration. A biosphere-destroying meteorite-impact or a supernova should the trick, but otherwise we're on the safe side.
We've spread around the globe and grow our own food, and we aren't that far away from colonising other planets and creating self-contained offworld biospheres.

 

[sophie]

Dinosaurs weren't one species, and for all we know we can be pretty sure they didn't have technological civilization.

100% extinction proof is really an exaggeration. A biosphere-destroying meteorite-impact or a supernova should the trick, but otherwise we're on the safe side.
We've spread around the globe and grow our own food, and we aren't that far away from colonising other planets and creating self-contained offworld biospheres.

Not my point, but ok. Even still, I really don't think you'd be justified in making a call that, after surviving 200,000 years you can fairly say we'll survive for the next 800,000 even. Civilization's existed for what? a few thousand years now? That's less than a drop in a bucket compared to how long some species have existed on this planet. Strange things can happen given enough time, and I think it's both silly and presumptuous to say that we're anything near "extinction proof"

 

[squadbroken]

Not my point, but ok. Even still, I really don't think you'd be justified in making a call that, after surviving 200,000 years you can fairly say we'll survive for the next 800,000 even. Civilization's existed for what? a few thousand years now? That's less than a drop in a bucket compared to how long some species have existed on this planet. Strange things can happen given enough time, and I think it's both silly and presumptuous to say that we're anything near "extinction proof"

Short of an ELE so major that it kills off (almost) all surface life, there is pretty much nothing that seriously threatens humanity as a whole. Maybe not "extinction proof" but close enough.

 

[SG-17]

Optimistically, humanity will not perish until the Universe does.

Emphasis on humanity, not homo sapien sapiens. Most likely our species will be gone in a few million years, but the genus homo will remain. What that means in uncertain, but again optimistically, we will just be improved versions of ourselves. Assuming of course we don't reach a technological singularity and merge with machine or that our current, basically unchanging life, will slow or even terminate speciation. Not to mention the power of genetics.

However, we will never be extinction proof until we can seed the universe. Having all of our eggs in one basket, like we do now, is just asking for trouble. Even having all of our eggs in one system is dangerous. The farther we spread out, the higher the chances of total survival.


Pessimistically, we won't survive the coming energy and water crisis.

 

[Narz]

and we aren't that far away from colonising other planets and creating self-contained offworld biospheres.

People keep saying that all the time as if wanting it to be true makes it true.

We're nowhere close on hundreds of different levels, it's not on the horizon, assuming we solve our world recession & can throw billions at it perhaps in 50 years we'll be fairly close but even that is uncertain (even assuming complete certainty we will recover for the global recession in the next few years which is in itself quite a leap).

 

[SG-17]

People keep saying that all the time as if wanting it to be true makes it true.

We're nowhere close on hundreds of different levels, it's not on the horizon, assuming we solve our world recession & can throw billions at it perhaps in 50 years we'll be fairly close but even that is uncertain (even assuming complete certainty we will recover for the global recession in the next few years which is in itself quite a leap).

The second end-goal of the Apollo program was to land a man on Mars by the mid-80s. But Dicky thought it was too expensive. We have the technology now to get us to Mars. Hell we even have the technology to set up bases on the Moon and Mars. We know where the water is on both and we have ways to power it (Thorium). The only real barrier is cost.