Countdown to extinction
 

How long before human beings cease to exist, whether by our own hand or acts of God or some super-disease or whatever other method you choose?

I tend to be a bit pessimistic. I think we will either actively do ourselves in with nuclear weapons or passively do it by degrading the environment to the point where human life is no longer sustainable. And that we will probably do so within the next 100 or 200 years.

In before the thread gets locked.

It ended for me when Mustaine cut what should have been the extended thrash/jam section in Foreclosure of a Dream to about 4 seconds. Just a horrible moment that signalled the end.

You really think this will get locked? :)

Or perhaps even go extinct?

Of course it will, you stupid alien bastard. What kind of a moron are you? God hates aliens even more than he hates liberals, New Orleans, and - apparently - the Minnesota Vikings.

Jesus.

























;)

I think we're quite close to being able to colonize other planets. The rate of technological progression has been incredible over the last 100 years. If we don't wreck the planet in the next 100 years, I think we stand a good chance of going on forever.

We Rigelians can't help but rub our superiority in once in a while. :)



Alien: "We offered you paradise. You would have experienced emotions a hundred times greater than what you call love. And a thousand times greater than what you call fun. You would have been treated like gods and lived forever in beauty. But, now, because of your distrustful nature, that can never be.

Marge: [aside] Mmmm. For a superior race, they really rub it in.

I think you have, perhaps inadvertently, just covered the Mount Rushmore of topics leading to bannings here at FOFC.

I think it'll be longer than 100 years, but shorter than 500 years.

That is, if some scientist doesn't inadvertently create a black hole that destroys us all or a fusion reactor that spins out of control and is unstoppable before then.

Next week...I'm positive, saw the sign in the bowl of mah Wheaties.

If I wasn't an optimist, I wouldn't have brought life into this world. I think we'll be fine.

Taking this a step further; this is my top 5 list of scary things.

1. Global worming - If it is man made, which I am not convinced, we are toast. You can not unburn all those fossil fuels.
2. Biological - Supper virus, antibiotic resistant bacteria, mad cow; this could hit from any number of directions.
3. Nano Technology - robot bacteria, lets let them loose and see what happens.
4. AI - Just because the Unabomber was crazy doesn't mean he was wrong.
5.Nuclear War - Just a few years ago this was a danger of the past, but with the emergence of China is a new cold war around the corner?

I voted 10,000 years. People have been thinking that humanity is on the verge of wiping themselves out for a long, long time, though I guess the big difference is that now we actually have the technology to do it. I like to think we are smart enough not to kill ourselves, but something like a major virus epidemic/new ice age/comet etc. is bound to strike at some point over the next 10,000 years. If it doesn't kill us, it will surely reduce us to savages.

Who cares? I'll be dead.

the best part of this poll is that no one will ever be able to tell you you were wrong

EDIT:
geez, what the fuck is with the buzzer beating punchline steals today?

You mean right?

Cause I could PM Bearcat, that ol' whippersnapper, in 51 years and say, "Hey, you were wrong!"

All I know is I'm going to die

Death is Only the Beginning

Dear lord... a fate worse than death!

I don't want to ever die. It's the one thing I dread most. :(

Oh man that rules. Soon as I saw the thread title I was all smiles and I am glad you got in early with the above. Class.

:cool:

Meh, If I die then I die. No big whoop...

If Jeeb dies, he dies.

I think we're currently in an "extinction window", as in we have the means to obliterate our race, and will continue to suffer that threat until we begin colonizing space.

The key to true colonization of space will be the advent of self-sufficient space vehicles. This means a vehicle that has an unending supply of energy, either through some sort of new reactor, or perhaps through other means. Plus, this vehicle needs to have a setup so that people can create their own food, etc....

At that point, I think we'll see people start leaving for other planets, or even leaving the solar system altogether. That's the end of the "extinction window."

1,000 years, tops. Longer if we expand to other solar systems.

For instance, we just recreated the Spanish Influenza....and released its genetic code to the world, good and evil. It's a lot easier and cheaper to steal/create biological agents as a terrorist organization then a nuclear bomb, and a virus, unlike a single nuke, can wipe out more then a city.

We've reached the point where we can genetically modify ourselves and other species. Science fiction is full of stories where civilizations have modified themselves to the point where something fails or they are all susceptible to a virus, etc.

Just because we have the power to do something, doesn't always mean we should, and I don't think humanity is mature enough to know the difference.

Spreading out of the solar system and on to other stars would definitely delay things, but the very curiosity that powered our brain growth and gave us dominion over the planet is eventually going to doom us.

I chose < 1,000 years. What do I win if I get it right?

100,000 years is not a long time, dinosaurs lasted over hundreds of millions of years, I think humans probably can't last as long, but at least half of that.

I think it too easy to underestimate our capacity for survival. Some humans would survive both a massive nuclear war and/or a biological disaster even if 95% or more were wiped out. Environmental disaster? Mankind has survived a couple of ice ages already without our current and future technological abilities. Within a hundred years we'll already have built a colony on the moon. A couple of hundred more and we'll be well beyond that.

We'll survive in some form or another though I wouldn't be surprised if we wouldn't recognise a "human" in 1000 years or more - most of this perishable stuff will already be replaceable within 100 years.