human extinction: how?

[Pooja]

How do you think that the world will end (for humans, at least)?

http://www.discover.com/issues/oct-00/features/featworld/

note: I only used the 'good ones' from the article. Some of the ones listed in the link were interesting, but kind of dumb.

[jyakulis]

i would say an asteroid from the kuiper belt or some mutated virus that we can not deal with.

and if those never happen then you always have the sun turning into a red giant or the eventual collision with another galaxay as a possibility. but by that time we'll likely be extinct or have colonized other star systems.

[charred_heart]

Where's the option for the sun dying?

[Pooja]

Where's the option for the sun dying?

THey've calculated that the sun won't dye for a looooooooooooooooooong time. It's still fairly young. I figured that some of the stuff listed in the poll would happen first.

[FranG]

I don't think humans as a species are going anywhere. The Earth will always be here, and humans will always be here. Maybe both in an altered form but still will exist nonetheless.

[brakedown]

I figure that itll be global warming, it would only take the earths temperature to change a few degrees to affect the ecosystems. It would be difficult to adapt.

[NoahFence]

I voted Other for two reasons:

1. "Biotech Accident" doesn't really include, IMO, all the idiots who will deliberately indulge in cosmetic genetic engineering, which will have no immediate effects but will, over time, cause the species to stroke a lobe,

and

2. Because anything we've thought of beforehand can be evaded by some of the population.

It would be very, very easy to wipe out 99.99% of humanity at one stroke. It would not, not not not, be so easy to 100% wipe out a species capable of building Cheyenne Mountain.

[abathur]

it probably has something to do with joft!

[mancroft]

Some frightfulness caused by a man-made biological thingy.

[PenguinHunter]

Humm. . . I remember reading that article long ago in magazine form. I believe the original title was "20 Ways the World Could End Suddenly" - hence some of the more obscure choices.

[Brad324]

it will more than likely be self-inflicted.

Just remember, life has been around for quite a long time, and our ancestors have survived for millions of years. If you scale back time and look at our frame of reference, we're only observing a tiny speck in the actual time-frame of life on earth... which means something like a comet, or magnetic field switch, or the sun exploding, or other natural phonomena are highly unlikely in the near future. It seems much more likely that a nuclear war would cause a nuclear winter, or something else humans do to make earth uninhabitable. Given enough time, our self destruction is almost inevitable. (If it's possible, someone will be crazy enough to do it).

[firch]

I'm surprised elective non-parentalism isn't on the list.

[intpgolfer]

Stupidity?

[kwis]

What about skynet

[tinribz]

A mad scientist, probaly and INTP, will inadvertantly rip a hole in space and we all get sucked into another universe where cockroaches are in charge or something.

[formerly known as]

Where's the option for the sun dying?

If we last that long, we'd almost certainly have polulated other solar systems - so I doubt we'd be too worried about the sun.

[demagogic_schizoid]

I don't think humans as a species are going anywhere. The Earth will always be here, and humans will always be here. Maybe both in an altered form but still will exist nonetheless.

why do you think this? It goes against everything scientists are saying, or at least what I have heard them say.

[firch]

Flood basalt volcanism.

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/template.cfm?name=fbasalts

[FranG]

why do you think this? It goes against everything scientists are saying, or at least what I have heard them say.

Because my experience tells me otherwise. My mind can't process my non-existence, because my experience (which is reliable knowledge) has always been to exist. Same with the Earth, per my experience it's always been here and I can't foresee it going anywhere.

[demagogic_schizoid]

Because my experience tells me otherwise. My mind can't process my non-existence, because my experience (which is reliable knowledge) has always been to exist. Same with the Earth, per my experience it's always been here and I can't foresee it going anywhere.

Interesting. My mind tells me that if I had existed before I was born, I would be able to remember it...

[FranG]

Interesting. My mind tells me that if I had existed before I was born, I would be able to remember it...

It's mystical so just look at it like that; don't read too much in to it. I'm pretty mystical in a lot of my thoughts and beliefs. But I doubt if your mind can ever recall a time when it was not turned on. Here's a quote from an Enneagram book:

Faith without exerience is belief. Faith with experience brings reliable guidance.

Per this line of thought, most of us operate based on a set of beliefs.

[Ellipsis]

My idea: I choose other do you know why? I believe that we wont think about what will wipe us out...it will happen and we will be like oh what the hell... why didn't I think of that....

[Wolf]

We are missing volcanic action, and GRBs.

[IdiotPrayer]

What optimism we all have :)

[Geoff]

It would be very, very easy to wipe out 99.99% of humanity at one stroke. It would not, not not not, be so easy to 100% wipe out a species capable of building Cheyenne Mountain.

Unless Cheyenne Mountain causes it...



Cheyenne Mountain's computers twice almost pushed the world into World War 3. On November 9, 1979 a computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in USAF command posts around the world that a nuclear attack was taking place. A similar incident occurred on June 2, 1980 when a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape but failed to switch the system status to "test", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "continuity of government" bunkers as well as Command Posts worldwide.

[MacGuffin]

It would be very, very easy to wipe out 99.99% of humanity at one stroke. It would not, not not not, be so easy to 100% wipe out a species capable of building Cheyenne Mountain.

Unless Cheyenne Mountain causes it...



Cheyenne Mountain's computers twice almost pushed the world into World War 3. On November 9, 1979 a computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in USAF command posts around the world that a nuclear attack was taking place. A similar incident occurred on June 2, 1980 when a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape but failed to switch the system status to "test", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "continuity of government" bunkers as well as Command Posts worldwide.


Shall we play a game, Professor Falken?

[Hustler]

Because my experience tells me otherwise. My mind can't process my non-existence, because my experience (which is reliable knowledge) has always been to exist. Same with the Earth, per my experience it's always been here and I can't foresee it going anywhere.

Cosmically speaking, your experience means roughly jack shit. Actually, no, it means a lot less than jack shit. Eventually, protons will decay and baryonic matter will cease to exist. If the Earth hasn't already been swallowed up into a black hole by that point (if it survives the red giant phase of the sun's evolution), it will surely also cease to exist, as it is composed of baryonic matter.

Just wanted to let you know you were wrong.

Anyway, to answer the question, human extinction will occur because changes in society will create new social pressures that cause us all to become gay, and gay to the point that we don't even entertain the idea of heterosexual sex to propagate the species. When we have reached the point of 100% gayness, we will stop procreating and we will die off. I mean, you can already see this trend happening right here at INTPc. This place just keeps getting gayer! When it first got started there was, what, one gay guy? Then there were two for a while. Now we have gay people of all sorts of genders and even some transgendered people. Hell, I've lost all ability to track the gayness of INTPc at this point. Eventually, this whole place is going to be completely gay, and that is, of course, analogous to what's going to happen to society. Just so people don't get all up in arms about this, I want to make it clear I'm not making a moral judgment here. I don't really care that we as a race are going to turn completely gay and die out. Big deal. I'm just saying that's what's going to do it. The only way we'll be able to prevent this from happening is if we invent some sort of immortality drug or a time machine first. If that happens, we'll be around as long as the universe itself is, and maybe longer, if we can figure out a way to hop between universes. But, failing that, the increasing gayness of everything to do with humanity will bring about our race's ultimate extinction.

[venerationOFrabbits]

All species eventually go extinct. We as the most brainiac and dexteritous species, are capable of extending our stay until something outside of our control causes our eventual demise. I say mass insanity will inhibit our abilities to do this.

[naruto littles helpers.jpeg]

i've always thought of the collapse of the universe as a very elegant way to go. but to end in flames, like some native american accounts, would be pretty lovely as well.

[naruto littles helpers.jpeg]

firch:

i really like your quote. did you find that out on your own (just curious)? it's very interesting

[Utopmk]

Gamma Ray.

[Ellipsis]

no one has yet mentioned getting spliced by a one dimensional object....some how I find that image quite funny...for all our complexity we get killed by a single line....:banana:

[euterpenc]

Probably something caused by man himself.

[euterpenc]

no one has yet mentioned getting spliced by a one dimensional object....some how I find that image quite funny...for all our complexity we get killed by a single line....:banana:

Would that even be possible?

[rawr]

robot videogame wars

[Ellipsis]

Would that even be possible?

Yeah it's some theory that is going around...that there are objects that are completely one dimensional...


robot video game wars

....Nah, it will just give pro video gamers some purpose which is equivalent to the end of the world...

[Kirai]

We will end being shot down with nuclear bombs by a colony of evolved through gene mutation humans who settled down in outer space somewhere.

[Although, why not simply extinction due to us evolving away from homo sapiens, and the current definitions of 'human' turning blurred?]

[Ghost-Girl]

Mass stupidity.

[rainfall]

I still can't find any of these ideas usable to destroy humanity... Think people, THINK.

[Kirai]

I still can't find any of these ideas usable to destroy humanity... Think people, THINK.

That's easy. Have all kids kill each other in a big competition over the newest Nintendo. This will automatically result in the adults eradicating themselves because they are unable to decide who to blame.

It's optimal because we INTPs, who are but 1%, will be pointing and laughing admist the bloodbath.

[PeeSquare]

Of course I didn't bother to read the previous pages... Did anyone mention Peak Oil and it's ramifications? :ph34r: