How will the world end?

[Elbonio]

It's all got to end one day...

what do you think is the most likely way we will go?

The end of the world may be nigh or it may be ages away - but how is it going to happen?

this is the destruction of the planet or the end of the human race... whichever comes first

[Moose]

Oh easy, we're bound to piss off some aliens :)

[Er00]

pollution and/or a war, I voted pollution though :p:

Seriously though, anyone read STARK by Ben Elton? It's scary :/

[Aardvark]

One of those, sure.

[Mastacheif]

when the sun gets too big

[Gunsmith]

if i visit that curry house again :x

[Optimus]

[list=1]
The chances of a meteor/comet *actually* hitting the earth are like a hundred million to one...
Radical climate change is not immediate enough for humans to, at first, be unable to adapt, and eventually we'll find a solution
Unless theres some secret research going on somewhere, I doubt a inhumanly evil virus is waiting to be unleashed (ok, i'll admit its a *tiny* possibility)
Thermonuclear war is a distinct possibility, but also highly unlikely to be on such a scale as to cause a nuclear winter or the like... We're more likely to just enter another Cold War than an actual *Hot* one...
I'm an atheist :)
Very possible, altho will we even resemble what we do now? (another topic I know)
If a species is sophisiticated enough to have developed space travel, I doubt they would be petty enough to persecute lesser races (this obviously doesn't apply to humans, who once they reach this evolutionary shelf will try to enslave the universe... you know, human nature and all that...)
Nobody with any sense would design an AI without some sorta secret backdoor to bring about its downfall should The Terminator/I-Robot prove to be more accurate than we think...
Entirely possible... Altho we'll have colonised another planet by then... (or we'll just have to launch another garbage ball to deflect the one heading for us into the sun)
[/list=1]

Overall, im going for either 4, 6 or 9

[Jobabob]

robotz will kill us all! havnet you seen i-robot?!?

[Killy]

Everyone will wake up and find out it was all a dream... then everyone will feel cheated and complain to the director oh wait that was the film i was just watching... :p:

[TheDon]

Originally posted by Optimus
[list=1]
The chances of a meteor/comet *actually* hitting the earth are like a hundred million to one... - Tell that to the dinosaurs.
Radical climate change is not immediate enough for humans to, at first, be unable to adapt, and eventually we'll find a solution - Not really, a slight raise in temperature and we'll drown in the ice caps.
Unless theres some secret research going on somewhere, I doubt a inhumanly evil virus is waiting to be unleashed (ok, i'll admit its a *tiny* possibility) - Who says it has to be unleashed? Flu mutates constantly, it's different every year, who is to say that one of these mutations won't be extremely lethal?
Thermonuclear war is a distinct possibility, but also highly unlikely to be on such a scale as to cause a nuclear winter or the like... We're more likely to just enter another Cold War than an actual *Hot* one... - If anything happened with north korea it's a distinct possibility. If they were invaded, and were going to be defeated, then in a final act they could very possibly launch a barrage of nukes on the world. (This is probably the only way nukes will ever be used these days, as a last ditch "we're taking you down with us" attack)
I'm an atheist :) - Cool, I'm sure if there is a God you'll be on his safe list then
Very possible, altho will we even resemble what we do now? (another topic I know) - Probably the least likely one in the list. We've already ruined the world after being here for a VERY short time, the chances we'll last till the sun explodes is minute.
If a species is sophisiticated enough to have developed space travel, I doubt they would be petty enough to persecute lesser races (this obviously doesn't apply to humans, who once they reach this evolutionary shelf will try to enslave the universe... you know, human nature and all that...) - What if they have destroyed their world and ours is the perfect replacement? I doubt they'd take prisoners if it was a matter for their survival, I know we wouldn't.
Nobody with any sense would design an AI without some sorta secret backdoor to bring about its downfall should The Terminator/I-Robot prove to be more accurate than we think... - And no AI would beable to take over the world if it wasn't intelligent enough to look at it's own code and remove any back doors.
Entirely possible... Altho we'll have colonised another planet by then... (or we'll just have to launch another garbage ball to deflect the one heading for us into the sun) - Indeed, the most likely one on here, although I doubt we'll have colonised another planet by then as we're currently looking at over population, massive pollution and running the earth dry of resources, with no solutions appearing. ALOT of people need to die to solve this, and with increasing healthcare, and even more humanitarian efforts going on in the world, more and more people are surviving, the population keeps growing when we should be greatly reducing it. At current rates it will probably be within the next generations life time when the population reaches a point where we just can't sustain it, and I doubt we'll have colonised another planet by then.

[/list=1]

Overall, im going for either 4, 6 or 9
My monies on 9, we need to start cutting down on the population. 3/4 of the words resources used by 1/4 of the words people, that tells us we REALLY need to cut down on the amount of people. (Unless you want to go with the distribute everything equally and end up with a quality of life the same level as albania)

[JeRkY]

For me it will end with a swimming pool full of jelly and an ample supply of strippers.

thats if i had advanced notice of course. I dont think tesco stock enough jelly for that idea without a special order.

[Mouse_On_Mars]

Resources I think.

This (http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/exitmundi.htm) site's a good read for end of the world scenarios.

[Cabe]

you forgot evolution.

[Elbonio]

you mean "other" i think cabe

[Jobabob]

The whole world, everything, even people's lives will run on Steam. Valve accidentally shuts the service down.

[Elbonio]

Originally posted by Mouse_On_Mars
Resources I think.

This (http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/exitmundi.htm) site's a good read for end of the world scenarios.

a v interesting site indeed!

[Aerodynamic]

Well the USA already produce alot of pollution and China is currently going through its industrial revolution so global warming is inevitable in my eyes..
Only if we deny the usa access to middle east oil reserves and nuke china back to the stone age there may be a chance of surviving an extra few thousand years..

[Jobabob]

that was the most mis-informed post I've read in a while, thanks

[Aerodynamic]

correct my mistakes please :)

[TheDon]

Originally posted by Jobabob
that was the most mis-informed post I've read in a while, thanks Actually he speaks the truth. The only chance we have for surviving another few thousand years on this planet is drastic change. This is unlikely to happen unless you force change, easiest way to do this is to get rid of the people that wont change, or are changing into a bigger problem.

You wipe out half the problem and the problem is halved overnight ;)

[oxy]

i went with 9 .. seemed the most likely

[Cheez]

A meteor/comet/stellar object will collide with the Earth
While rare, they do happen every few hundred thousand years, we survived the last one along with a lot of other mammels, but who knows with the next one, we are due one soon. I don't think it's as likely as some of the others though.
Another ice age/change in climate
We could survive that, they change so slowly that we could see it coming and prepare for it.
A devasting and powerful virus
This is one of the most likely, as said before virus's mutate all the time, it's not going to be too long before one mutates in a way to make it lethal and untreatable. This is what I voted for
Global thermolnuclear war / war to end all wars (and wipe out the human race)
This is less likely than it may have seemed last century, it's still a possibility though.
As described in Revelation - the second coming of Christ
Very very unlikely in my opinion
We will last until the sun dies out (in 5 billion years)
Never has a race on earth lasted more than 3 million years. 5 billion years is so long it's highly unlikely we will still exist then. Even if we did, we would have evolved so much we wouldn't be human anymore, even if we did still call ourselves that.
Other intelligent life from elsewhere in the universe will bring about our destruction
A possibility, humans are such quarrelsome and arrogent creatures after being dominant on our planet for so long, we would expect any aliens we encountered to adhere to our morel values and would probably try and enforce them on other sentient species. I would imagine that we would certainly have wars with other races if we found any.
Technology/robots/AI of some sort of our own creating will wipe us out
This is another distinct possibility, science has shown it doesn't always think the end result through when it creates something. So who knows what could happen if an AI thought it could do things better than us.
We will pollute the planet/use up its resources/become over populated and our planet will no longer support us
Like an ice age, we would see the end coming, its feasable with our current technology to colonise the other planets in the solar system, it would just bankrupt the worlds govornments. If we -really- had to we could move though. Having said that, we -really- do need to kill off a few billion people, the earth can't support our population now let alone over the next couple of thousand years.

[Njoroge]

Other: Zak will topple over knocking andyf off his feet who in turn knocks into Groodles. The rumble as they hit the ground will cause Njoroge's 26 years of built up energy to be shot in a stream at bvark using Psym as a deflector dish. The stream of energy will combine with bvarks sarcasm to create an immence destructive force that tears a chasm in the earth itself. Afty will throw in his harem of young girls in to stop the tearing of the earth while Ryvita attempts to beat it at magic. This strange but precise combination of teenagers and cardboard will create an anti-immense destructive force which will combine with the first force making a large popping sound. The sound will kill everyone somehow.

[Tsung]

Another ice age/change in climate
We could survive that, they change so slowly that we could see it coming and prepare for

To be honest, I doubt we would see it coming and be prepared for it. Governments only ever think short term, and most in power are more interested in sorting themselfs out to worry about the future generations. Like a virus we spread across this planet, and like a virus we'll die, we will consume the planet.

[Ryvita]

Either that or the weight of the combined assembly of BFC wallets in Tignes will be too much, ripping a hole in the earth's crush, popping the planet like an over-ripe grape.

[Jobabob]

Originally posted by TheDon
Actually he speaks the truth. The only chance we have for surviving another few thousand years on this planet is drastic change. This is unlikely to happen unless you force change, easiest way to do this is to get rid of the people that wont change, or are changing into a bigger problem.

You wipe out half the problem and the problem is halved overnight ;)
spoken like a true facist

[Cheez]

Unfortunately that's the attitude needed for our species to survive the next few thousand years, we -desperately- need to reduce the earths population down to a couple of billion, either an enforced global ban on unlicenced breeding for the next couple of generations, or some kind of cull is needed.

[Er00]

I still hold to my belief that we shouldn't have a health service or research medecine purely for those reasons...but meh...everyone tends to shout at me if I say it :p:

[Mu5icMan]

The Sun will go SuperNova

[Nikumba]

Originally posted by Mu5icMan
The Sun will go SuperNova

The sun cant go nova, its mass is too small, similarly it wont form a black hole either, it will swell to a Red giant then shrink to a white dwarf and then die

I belive it will be a virus of some kind, look at how well the SARS experiment worked, no imagine if that was Ebola or plauge?

Nikumba

[Baz]

you mean the the end of the world will be bought about by Suprnova? the RIAA was right all along!

[TheDon]

Originally posted by Jobabob
spoken like a true facist If I am a facist for wanting to secure the future of our race then so be it.
IMO the majority of the human race are completly misguided. The world is severely overpopulated, and yet all anyone wants to do is make people live longer.
Nature kept the world in balance, illness is a form of population control, disease is something that was there to kill people so the population didn't get out of control. Yet modern society insists on bypassing this part of nature, of trying to make everyone live until they are 100, with no regard of what the results of these actions are.
We are the only species that has pretty much turned the head on evolution and survival of the fittest.
These days even the weakest can survive, because we as a race are FAR too compasionate.

I'll probably get flamed to hell for this, but *shrug* it's my opinion, I'm entitled to it, I respect everyone elses, so if you can't respect mine then for some reason it just doesnt bother me. Instead of sending aid to all these third world countries in a bid to improve their quality of life, instead of sending over improved medical care, medicine to cure their disease, we should leave them. They are a casualty of nature, famine is a form of population control, it's nature saying "yeah, there's not enough food here, you're gonna have to die" yet we insist on ignoring nature and trying to get these people to live longer. Bear in mind hese are people that have a huge amount of kids to ensure some survive, if the health care they enjoyed improved to the state where most of their children survived do you think that they would suddenly have less? No, it's been proved time and time again that this doesn't happen, they continue to have 10 kids for a while after, and the population explodes. It sounds calous, but for the good of the rest of the world they need to die.

We contrinue to research cures for cancer, why? How many people a year die from cancer? Can our country, yet alone the planet, support all these extra people if they did survive? Think about it, in 2000 over 6million people died of cancer. Can this planet survive 6million people not dying every year? I sounds extremely harsh, and I know alot of people have lost someone they care about due to cancer, even I have, but I still have no problem seeing the bigger picture. We will wipe ourselves out unless we can bring the population into control. Disease is natures way of doing this, and we're continuingly trying to stop it with absoloutly no plan on how to deal with the consequences.

And don't get me started on what we should do with stupid people :p:

[Gunsmith]

Originally posted by Elbonio
How will the world end?

Wizzo starts to think oO

/me flees from Wiznet

[phil]

Originally posted by TheDon
Instead of sending aid to all these third world countries in a bid to improve their quality of life, instead of sending over improved medical care, medicine to cure their disease, we should leave them. They are a casualty of nature, famine is a form of population control, it's nature saying "yeah, there's not enough food here, you're gonna have to die" yet we insist on ignoring nature and trying to get these people to live longer.

Not a flame, only comments on your arguments.

A natural famine can be seen as a way of nature culling our species or directing us to more fertile areas. However, most of these modern famines are not natural at all, they are caused by wars or the disregard of third world countries by governments and industry.

We are sending aid over because their government won't help them - they'd prefer to send the resources to soldiers. Or ... we're sending aid over because the natural resources and workers of the country are exploited by multinationals to give you a slightly cheaper and blander cup of coffee.

We are the only species that has pretty much turned the head on evolution and survival of the fittest.
These days even the weakest can survive, because we as a race are FAR too compasionate.

You could apply your argument to remove all social support. Here's a scenario for you: You finish uni and can't find a job. You don't have any money to buy food and you can't live off the land because it's all privately owned and farmed for us superior people. You die. Sorry - natural selection, hope you enjoyed your 20 years.

What? You say that you were going to be useful to us once you managed to find a suitable job and would have actually gave more back than you took out? Well tough, you're dead. In the same way, there is no reason these countries which are busy overpopulating the world in your view can't develop given support.


It sounds calous, but for the good of the rest of the world they need to die.

It's ridiculous to compare someone in some poor African country having ten kids to someone down your street being 'all civilised' and having 2. Those 2 kids will probably contribute 1000 times more to the overpopulation of the earth than those 10 in Africa. Losing half the population in Africa would do nothing to help the problems of overpopulation you are worried about, because these people aren't using up any resources you need.

We contrinue to research cures for cancer, why?

Because it's every living thing's primary goal - to survive.

[bvark]

Kill the immigrants! That's the only way forward if you ask me, guv'nor.

[TheDon]

Originally posted by phil
Not a flame, only comments on your arguments.

A natural famine can be seen as a way of nature culling our species or directing us to more fertile areas. However, most of these modern famines are not natural at all, they are caused by wars or the disregard of third world countries by governments and industry.

We are sending aid over because their government won't help them - they'd prefer to send the resources to soldiers. Or ... we're sending aid over because the natural resources and workers of the country are exploited by multinationals to give you a slightly cheaper and blander cup of coffee.
Maybe, but improving their quality of life to the point where they have a sustainable environment to live in is extremely detrimental to the world. I'm not just saying leave them be and the situation will be solved, just that sending aid over is the worst thing that can be done as it just extends their lives while they add nothing back into the world.
Originally posted by phil


You could apply your argument to remove all social support. Here's a scenario for you: You finish uni and can't find a job. You don't have any money to buy food and you can't live off the land because it's all privately owned and farmed for us superior people. You die. Sorry - natural selection, hope you enjoyed your 20 years.

What? You say that you were going to be useful to us once you managed to find a suitable job and would have actually gave more back than you took out? Well tough, you're dead. In the same way, there is no reason these countries which are busy overpopulating the world in your view can't develop given support.

Hence why I have a large amount of money put aside for this very reason, if i don't find a job straight away I will beable to sustain myself for a while until I do. And I'm not afraid of going into tescos and stacking shelves until I find the job that I want. THAT is why I'd survive, and if someone else hasn't got that forethought, or is too proud to take a low level job that will at least allow them to live, (and yes, there are a TON of them our there, you can practically be gaurenteed to walk into them) then oh well, they obviously aren't one of the fittest that were meant to survive.
Originally posted by phil

It's ridiculous to compare someone in some poor African country having ten kids to someone down your street being 'all civilised' and having 2. Those 2 kids will probably contribute 1000 times more to the overpopulation of the earth than those 10 in Africa. Losing half the population in Africa would do nothing to help the problems of overpopulation you are worried about, because these people aren't using up any resources you need.
Indeed, at the moment that is the case. But what about in the future when we've given them so much aid, and their own goverments have stopped inflating their own pockets instead of looking after their people and they are able to start to develop? Then the 1000 kids there will make a big difference. I admit that at the moment they have a negligable impact, but if the visions of turning these countries around and building them infrastructure and industry ever came to light it would be a massive disaster.
Originally posted by phil


Because it's every living thing's primary goal - to survive.
Yes, but at what cost? Say out of them 6million people that would survive every year due to not dying of cancer 4million of them don't die of other means, in 10 years that's 40million more people in the developed world using untold amounts of resources. That's practically the whole population of England again. Could the world cope with that? I seriously doubt it.

[Mu5icMan]

The only way the human race is going to survive is if we nuke every country execpt England, Holland, Japan and China.

[Dr_Dunce]

Originally posted by Mu5icMan
The only way the human race is going to survive is if we nuke every country execpt England, Holland, Japan and China.
Why China? 0_o

[Mu5icMan]

i like the food ;)

[Zenith]

Originally posted by TheDon
If I am a facist for wanting to ...

<snippety snip snip>

... don't get me started on what we should do with stupid people :p: What he said.

There are too many people in the world and billions of them go hungry on a regular basis. Finding food for everyone isn't the problem. It is also finding clean drinking water.

The solutions:
Increase food production and distribution.
Switch over to a hydrogen economy (not based on petrochemicals).
Reduce the world population.

It would take nothing less than a single totalitarian world government to attempt to sort the problem out. Arthur C. Clarke stated in one of his books that the only thing that could unite the whole world in a common cause is a threat from space. I disagree. The cause that will unite the world will more than likely be an environmental catastrophe.... sort of a natural 9/11.

If we survive it, humanity will have learnt a valuable lesson. If we don't, let's hope the next generation of superior animals doesn't make the same mistakes we did.
Dinosaurs were top dog. They disappeared.
Humanity is currently top dog. I don't see us lasting 1000 years at the rate we're going right now.

[Elbonio]

re: running out of fossil fuels, just found this

http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/041126084122.6pp9f0wx.html

[Mamacita]

Other:- mass suicide

[Nivek]

i am sure we will destroy the planet before then but is it just me that thinks that we will get killed by machines.
there are sooo many films about it for a start and if you look at one in particual from space above and beyond, that AI war was started by a disgrutled employee inserting "take a chance" into the code of AI

Also if there was a war between man and machine i dont see how humans could really win

[Elbonio]

To quote Thom Yorke of Radiohead...



I'm not afraid of being taken over by computers though. All we need are more people with hammers.

[Lucifa]

The world will end with a huge fireworks display, a few dancing girls, elephants in hats and cats in bomber jackets.
There'll be an awards presentation with historic figures vieing for prizes. I think Joan of Arc is up for Best Female.
Then after a huge party sponsered by Sony, the curtain will come down to mass applause.

That's all Folks.

Lucifa

[Mu5icMan]

Originally posted by Mamacita
Other:- mass suicide

Type Kill in Console :)

[Nivek]

Originally posted by Elbonio
To quote Thom Yorke of Radiohead...
I'm not afraid of being taken over by computers though. All we need are more people with hammers.


like that would work with terminator

[Cheez]

Originally posted by Lucifa
The world will end with a huge fireworks display, a few dancing girls, elephants in hats and cats in bomber jackets.
There'll be an awards presentation with historic figures vieing for prizes. I think Joan of Arc is up for Best Female.
Then after a huge party sponsered by Sony, the curtain will come down to mass applause.

That's all Folks.

Lucifa I shall book a table at the restaraunt.

[Mouse_On_Mars]

Originally posted by Kevin
like that would work with terminator
Just need bigger hammers. ;)

[Cheez]

Originally posted by Kevin
like that would work with terminator Nowhere did it specify the size of the hammer...

[OverlordRob]

I went for 9 but thinknig baout it I think it could well be sudden climate change (maybe caused by 9)...i really dont think we could adapt to 10000 years of freezing temperatures.

If the population just needs culling ill happily take a shotgun to some townies heads to help kickstart it :)