End of the world scenarios

[Trinity]

Hi everyone,

I would like to know how the world could possibly end. I am talking realistically. The movies tell us that we could be killed by the core of the earth, or an asteroid that needs Bruce Willis to blow it up; even the Christians have the book of revelation.

So what would be plausible? How do INTPs see the end of the world happening?

[PsiKik]

Do you mean the end of humanity or the physical destruction of planet Earth?

I see humanity being destroyed by artificial life which will evolve until the point where we are in competition and in the evolutionary scheme of things we will not be able to compete with said AL.

[Werdna]

I would guess he means the end of humanity... though the physical destruction of the planet earth would certainly have that effect....
Asteroids aren't implausible, they've eradicated most life on earth a few times over.
I can only hope that the people who first create such advanced artificial life also equip it with a total lack of ambition.
In my opinion, the most likely thing to kill most of us and bring about the end of society as we know it would be some new resistant and lethal virus/disease. Possibly developed for biological warfare, but not necessarily.

[cloakable]

The sun naturally turns into a Red Giant, and fries the planet Earth.

[Werdna]

The sun naturally turns into a Red Giant, and fries the planet Earth.
Yeah, in about 4 billion years. Somehow I don't think that's what Trinity had in mind. Got to define your questions carefully when dealing with INTP's....

[cloakable]

The sun naturally turns into a Red Giant, and fries the planet Earth.Yeah, in about 4 billion years. Somehow I don't think that's what Trinity had in mind. Got to define your questions carefully when dealing with INTP's....

Well, it is a valid answer. And that IS how I see the world ending. Either that, or Burning Bush initiates WW3.

[Birdsnest]

Nuclear war. Black hole could swallow everything. A disease could hit. Actually, that would be the best option, the earth needs a break from humanities destruction of it. Of course I don't want any of that to happen.

But look at the headlines:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/11/25/birdflu.warning/index.html

[Chill]

People worry about the one big event that's going to cause humanity's destruction; we worry about asteroids, world war III, etc. Then global warming sneaks up and bites us in the ass.

[cloakable]

People worry about the one big event that's going to cause humanity's destruction; we worry about asteroids, world war III, etc. Then global warming sneaks up and bites us in the ass.
But that won't mean the end of the world - even if life becomes completley extinguished on Earth, the planet will continue nicely on. It's the sun thats going to doom the planet in the end.

[Trinity]

I should have said, end of humanity. This is just something I was thinking about. I suppose I have read and seen to many end of the world books and movies, but I was wondering if there were any other creative ways for it to happen.

The sun turning into a red giant could happen sooner if you had something that sped the process up.

[BritainOphira]

Sounds like you have a plan, Brain. Care to elaborate?

[Werdna]

I should have said, end of humanity. This is just something I was thinking about. I suppose I have read and seen to many end of the world books and movies, but I was wondering if there were any other creative ways for it to happen.

The sun turning into a red giant could happen sooner if you had something that sped the process up.
Like that Stargate episode where they accidentally travel through a star depositing some superheavy elements making the sun go nova a few billion years earlier than expected...
Wouldn't you need a few planets the size of Jupiter, consisting solely of elements heavier than iron, and throw them into the sun to accomplish that? Or perhaps there's a way to speed up fushion I never heard about.

Creative ways, lets see... (I thought you wanted credible?)
Somebody comes up with scientific evidence that life is without meaning and there is no god. All SJs commit suicide because of this and society falls apart. The remnants of humanity eventually succumbs to diseases, wars and lack of indoor plumbing.

[Sackanaka]

The sun turning into a red giant could happen sooner if you had something that sped the process up.

Quick, get Pinky before it's doom for us all! :eek:

Or we could just have faith in the Pness so that the plan doesn't take flight.
I say the end of the world will come when Melody returns with a vengeance :devil:

[Zero Angel]

Or, the SJ majority starts a war against the NT minority, the NTs are wiped out because they're not cool enough. THEN because the SJs have nobody to think for them society falls apart and the remaining people all commit seppuku as ordered by the christian god in the Bible, XP edition.

[mgb]

Do we have to end? In four billion years we should have found somewhere else to live?

[Trinity]

"Sounds like you have a plan, Brain. Care to elaborate?" You're right BritainOphira . I do have a plan, but not to destroy humanity. I was thinking about writing a book and was looking for some different end of the world scenarios. I just wanted to try and stay away from the same old tired scenarios that have been used over and over again.

Thank you your replies so far. It has me thinking again.

[Arioch]

If humanity survives 3 billion years it will have done a great deal more then I thought it would.

[cloakable]

Or, the SJ majority starts a war against the NT minority, the NTs are wiped out because they're not cool enough. THEN because the SJs have nobody to think for them society falls apart and the remaining people all commit seppuku as ordered by the christian god in the Bible, XP edition.
No, no, the SJ's (Normals) declare war on the NT's (Mad Scientist's), at which point the NT's notice that the SJ's exist, wipe them out with ub3r 1337 weapons of mass destruction, and society collapses due to the lack of people involved in it. Then, four billion years later, the sun expands into a red giant and fries the earth. :rofl:

[PsiKik]

People worry about the one big event that's going to cause humanity's destruction; we worry about asteroids, world war III, etc. Then global warming sneaks up and bites us in the ass.

One of the best comments on this subject!
Quite true, it will probably be global warming, climate damage - I wonder
if it is possible for the Earth to go the way of Venus. Any astrophysicists, planetary climatologists here?

[cloakable]

One of the best comments on this subject!
Quite true, it will probably be global warming, climate damage - I wonder
if it is possible for the Earth to go the way of Venus. Any astrophysicists, planetary climatologists here?
Um, probably not. As far as I know, Venus is a gas giant. Do you mean Mars, by any chance?

[PsiKik]

There is also the possibility of gamma ray bursts, apparently even one several thousand
light years away could wipe out every living thing on Earth.

[Boneca]

How do we define humanity? In, say, 500.000 years time, would we still be called human?
I don't quite believe that humankind will be erased in one day/year/lifetime, I think it is more a question of evolution slowly changing us. Another scenario could be that some other species or group of species will slowly push us aside. My bet is on the insects. Cockroaches are tough things.

[Chill]

There is also the possibility of gamma ray bursts, apparently even one several thousand
light years away could wipe out every living thing on Earth.

Well, that's rather anticlimatic. :)

[Groty]

Um, probably not. As far as I know, Venus is a gas giant. Do you mean Mars, by any chance?Venus is a rock like us, but covered in greenhouse gases.

I've kinda wondered something...

What if humans actually started on Mars, destroyed it, then moved to Venus, destroyed it, and now we're here on Earth, with no recollection of it. Both of those planets could have theoretically sustained life in the past, before certain ecological occurrences.

[Boneca]

I've kinda wondered something...

What if humans actually started on Mars, destroyed it, then moved to Venus, destroyed it, and now we're here on Earth, with no recollection of it. Both of those planets could have theoretically sustained life in the past, before certain ecological occurrences.
If we are repeating the same mistake for the third time, there is not much hope for humanity... :blink:

[indczn]

I'd like to chalk our demise up to some monumental failure of humanity. It only seems fitting that we destroy ourselves. Anything else just wouldn't be proper justice for our pathetic species.

[Dunearhp]

Someone invents the "Grey goo" which immediately turns all organic matter into more Grey goo.

We discover interstellar travel only to piss of the first race we encounter to such an extent that they wipe us out.

Someone discovers a way to tap zero point energy. When they try to use it the massive amount of energy released collapses into a black hole. It takes out not only earth but the sun and several nearby stars.

A radical environmentalist engineers a virus to wipe out the human race for the good of the planet.

In 150 million years we finally discover everything there is to know. Devoid of challenge, the human race dies of boredom.

[Sackanaka]

Dunearhp figures the secret of immortality and ensures at least one of the 5 proposed theories comes true, if not all.

Other INTPs learn the secret and discuss their plots; become too engrossed in forum to do anything. Humankind lives until internet collapses.

[Durroch]

Lemmings. They grow. They multiply and overpopulate. They push each other off cliffs.

Humans. They grow. They engage in activities which are, rather pleasurable, and overpopulate. The INTPs get tired of so many people, and begin pushing people off of cliffs. The INTPs are the only ones left and cannot function without the help of the other types. They lose their glasses and fall off cliffs.

Lemmings.

[Sackanaka]

Of course, everyone knows the real answer. The end occurs when you cease to live. =p But that wouldn't allow for stretching creativity.

[indie]

Robert Frost said:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

From "You Come Too", 1916

REM's version is also pretty great. . .

But in reality? I imagine that it will be over before anyone has time to comprehend what has happened.

[Warrior413]

Heh, I seem to have a link for every occasion...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/exitmundi.htm
This is a collection of all kinds of ways humanity could perish. I found it to be informative, amusing, and slightly depressing. Like INTPs. B)

[jimkopelli]

Giant-ass alien thing comes from out of some other dimension and eats the planet. Galactus? Antimatter accident? What about Hitchhikers Guide style?

[Dman]

I highly doubt that a virus would wipe out every last human being on the planet. If that were possible, it probably would have happened within the last several thousand years. There's always somebody with some genetic mutation that resists.

As for the climatic change thing, it would take long enough that we would find some way to adapt to it, even if many people perished. Some would prevail.

Realistically, it would have to be something very sudden, since us wily humans always find a way to adapt. I like the giant-ass alien thing from another dimension.

[Sackanaka]

Heh, I seem to have a link for every occasion...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/exitmundi.htm
This is a collection of all kinds of ways humanity could perish. I found it to be informative, amusing, and slightly depressing. Like INTPs. B)

I like that site... but you're right. It is depressing. Makes me want to write a script for a movie though, except the ending won't involve overcoming the odds or living happily ever after. The plot would be more like "The earth is going to be sucked into a black hole, you can't fly away, you have no magical powers, so what are your plans?"

[Ckyzxr]

The plot would be more like "The earth is going to be sucked into a black hole, you can't fly away, you have no magical powers, so what are your plans?"

"The Hole Man" by Larry Niven was slow destruction of the Earth by black hole if I remember correctly.

My guess is that large portions of the human race will be wiped out by viral attack a couple of times. It's already happening in Africa to some degree. In fact, I predict there will be a major Ebola-type outbreak (fast killing virus) in a highly populated area sometime in the next 20 years. Probably over a million will die. SARS was nothing.

But since history tends to repeat, humans will likely succumb to disaster caused by collison with another space-going entity.

[hemanthraz]

Humans will do all they can to continue their boring and inconsequential lives.Improved geriatric care means less people die, while the fertility rate goes down.

Cloning becomes commonplace, but the clones are not genetically viable, and die young.The earth is filled with old people/young clones.The clones are sterile.
The old people fight for the life-extending drugs.America establishes a stranglehold on the drugs.A dictator takes over the cloning process and makes only copies of himself.

The lack of new genetic material corrodes the human gene pool and all the clones die after catching a cold. The dictator eventually dies without anyone to bully around.

Millions of years later super-evolved cockroaches, make jokes about the era of "dumb bipeds" who bred themselves out.

I really enjoyed this thread!!
hahahahaha

[PsiKik]

I still think humanity will end before the century is out due to artificial life.
It sounds like a sci-fi scenario that has been done countless times, the machines taking over, but maybe this sci-fi theme has been done so many times is because
it is indeed the way it will end for us and is thus a highly important warning.

Take a look at this link, it is about work being done now on the subject of
self constructing and evolving artificial life.
What is really scary is to go to the bottom of the page and see
who the sponsor is.

http://demo.cs.brandeis.edu/golem/

[ohnoaninfp]

A giant toad that has been floating in outerspace for millions of years consumes our measly planet.

[Dman]

I still think humanity will end before the century is out due to artificial life.
It sounds like a sci-fi scenario that has been done countless times, the machines taking over, but maybe this sci-fi theme has been done so many times is because
it is indeed the way it will end for us and is thus a highly important warning.

Take a look at this link, it is about work being done now on the subject of
self constructing and evolving artificial life.
What is really scary is to go to the bottom of the page and see
who the sponsor is.

http://demo.cs.brandeis.edu/golem/

Naaah. It took humans millions of years of evolution to get to where we are, and even if we could somehow leapfrog the AI to be on par with human intelligence, it would have to be smarter than humans to wipe us out and take over.

In order to be smarter, they must evolve beyond where we're at. That would take eons. Just because it may have the ability to think faster does not mean smarter. It would have to learn to think smarter illogically as well, because humans behave illogical at times. It would have to know how to predict human behavior, which is essentially impossible.

[tragula]

There is an Essay in 2004 Best American Science Writing devoted to listing and exploring various doomsday scenarios. It's very interesting.

There is also a rant on Introverts in the same book. (Reading it was how I actually ended up stumbling onto this site!)

[MjrMarshmellows]

Hmm... Maybe we will wipe ourselves out with an idea.
Like Ice-9.
There's something very romantic about that.
(Nucleur war, Germ Warfare, any of those will do)