What will be the end of humanity?

[ohcrapitsnico]

Decadence combined with stupidity.

Oh please! You are a prime example of that my brother.

 

[SirLamphead]

The death of our sun. We only have five billion years left!

True but have you seen how fast technology has progressed in a century?
The average person in the US in 1800 may be able to go 6mph on a horse, 1900 60 mph with a locomotive, and 600mph in 2000 on an airliner.

Humans are a thinking species and we won't wait around for a killer sun or pandemic or global warming. They are all serious threats but humans will last a long time with technological advances.

I voted Eternal.

 

[scy12]

Destruction due to the lack of technology needed to avert it. Or Eternal. Or at a point we would evolve into a different smarter species.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

AFAIK, this "collision" will happen on the level of two blunderbusses firing piles of debris at one another at long range - the clouds will intersect, but the component stars are expected to have very very few collisions. (Six, IIRC.)

There won't be any real collisions, and it is possible that we -if we are still around- will come out of this unscathed, but it's also possible that the gravity of arriving stars will knock earth out of the solar system.

 

[Shekwan]

Something involving bears...

 

[Globex]

Nonsense.


BTW, what's the difference between "eviromental collapse" and "climate change"?

"Alien invasion" is up there because I wanted to have as many options as possible in the thread.

By environmental collapse, I mean ecosystem destruction, pollution, and resource depletion to the point where the earth is unable to provide the resources needed to sustain human civilization.

By climate change I mean a drastic change in the global climate (ice age for example).

OP should have defined more precisely, what he means with "human civilization". It is extremely unlikely that war or pandemia or environmental collapse or volcanoes will kill 100% EVERY human. But ofcourse that does not constitute as civilization, I quess civilization requires some "culture" atleast...

I quess OP means something in the lines that the way of life changes so radically, that people can say that "hmmm, as a civilization, we rare survivors of this chaos, are now new civilization, instead of being survivors and continuers of the old civilization".

Dunno, any of those could cause that. But total extermination? Maybe asteroid, if it is big enough.

I meant a disaster that could lead to the collapse of government systems, social systems, and economic systems on a global scale and significantly reduce the human population. Something that we would not be able to recover from in several thousand years. Though everyone is free to choose their own definition for "the end of humanity" for the purposes of this thread.

Giant ants.

Should have put that up there

A supernova within 200 ly would almost definitely kill every human being. Unless enough people find a place to hide under earth for several weeks before the exploding star rises over the horizon...

Why isn't the option "The LHC will create a black hole that swallows the earth" in the poll anyway?

Supernova and LHC mishap should be up there too

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Improper use of critical technologies.

Do you hav something specific in mind ?
Grey goo, antimatter, artificial black holes, Cylons ?

 

[Newbunkle]

Something involving bears...

Giant bears?

 

[Shekwan]

Giant bears?

No, something far worse.... organised bears...

 

[Kozmos]

Do you hav something specific in mind ?
Grey goo, antimatter, artificial black holes, Cylons ?

Molecular manufacturing. End of the economy as we know it. Not to mention the possibility of Infinite War.

 

[Fadan80]

No, something far worse.... organised bears...

Even far worse... Yogi bears

 

[Globex]

Something involving bears...

Is has already begun:

Look at the murderous rage in his eyes

 

[Cygnus X-1]

Aliens invading

or me I happen to be nuke happy

 

[plesniak]

A politician will do something stupid...like a pre-emptive strike on Iran...then the Muslims will hate us even more. Americans and Canadians talk big and do very little other than send in hardware to damage other countries infrastructure. The ppls of the Middle East breed hatred into thier children so that eventually when we have grown too fat to actually fight thier children will come with modern tech bombs and destroy the world as we try and defend ourselves by sending more nukes back at them. I say within 50 yrs.

 

[Shekwan]

A politician will do something stupid...like a pre-emptive strike on Iran...then the Muslims will hate us even more. Americans and Canadians talk big and do very little other than send in hardware to damage other countries infrastructure. The ppls of the Middle East breed hatred into thier children so that eventually when we have grown too fat to actually fight thier children will come with modern tech bombs and destroy the world as we try and defend ourselves by sending more nukes back at them.

Are you serious? You're this scared of Muslim/Arabs/Persians? The media is doing it's job well anyway...

 

[IglooDame]

Heat death of the universe?

That's my somewhat optimistic prediction. Most of the poll choices are mooted by self-sufficient human colonies in the solar system, and most of the thread mentions (sun nova, Milky Way vs Andromeda) are mooted by self-sufficient human colonies in other star systems. I give the first 100-200 years, and the second maybe another couple hundred years after that.

 

[BasketCase]

I'm gonna shack up with those who voted "the death of our Sun".

Mmph. Whoops--scuse me, pardon me--OWW, who stepped on my foot???

Wow. Crowded in here.

 

[Ayatollah So]

Other: we make successors who aren't human.

What he said. I'm hoping they'll just be a more advanced primate: maybe with cyborg-style enhancements, but always with a biological core. Unfortunately, they might instead (or, later) be robots that do a convincing job of simulating human-like emotions, feelings, sensations, etc. Unfortunately, that may be possible without actually possessing emotions, feelings, sensations, etc. The survival of life as we know it (and anything remotely like it) may depend on people's ability NOT to make a philosophical mistake.

I wish I had confidence in that ability

 

[Masquerouge]

So you guys really don't think mankind will evolve?

 

[Globex]

So you guys really don't think mankind will evolve?

Technologically, yes. Biologically, no. We don't really need to evolve in the biological sense since we can adapt to new conditions more quickly and efficiently by developing new technologies. We might have genetically engineered humans in the future but that would raise ethical concerns slowing down advances in that field.