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Human extinction

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I made this post to list off and disscuss risks to the human species. The top five risks (in my opinon) are:

 

1. Nuclear warfare

2. Disease

3. Asteroid

4. Supervolcano eruption

5. Climate Change

 

If anyone wants to add to the list or talk about these risks, go rigt ahead.

Edited by Guest (see edit history)

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Top 3 risks IMO:

 

1. Stupidity.

2. Idiocy.

3. Lack of common sense.

 

Unfortunately it looks like we're heading to Dodo land now...

Don't insult me. I have trained professionals to do that.

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Top 3 risks IMO:

 

1. Stupidity.

2. Idiocy.

3. Lack of common sense.

 

Unfortunately it looks like we're heading to Dodo land now...

 

Those are the basis for #1 on the list.

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I doubt that humans will go extinct because there's probably several super rich people with super bunkers 5 super-miles underground. They're in their right minds to keep it secret too.

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I doubt that humans will go extinct because there's probably several super rich people with super bunkers 5 super-miles underground. They're in their right minds to keep it secret too.

 

There's always a way. Refugees/survivors might fight to get in, the disease could have reached the bunker, the asteroid might be too big to protect/prepare against, etc.

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I think Pest's No.3 is a real threat, which should be taken very seriously. No.2 is a remote possibility (has to be a man-made microorganism) but is very very unlikely to be an "extinction level" threat. Others I do not think of as an existential dangers, more like potentially very disruptive and costly but not terminal disasters.

 

The real solution for Nos.2 and 3 is to make sure humans create self-sustaining populations off-planet. There is value in trying to predict from and prevent No.3 but the ultimate insurance is for humans to live more than in one place.

 

Regards

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I think Pest's No.3 is a real threat, which should be taken very seriously. No.2 is a remote possibility (has to be a man-made microorganism) but is very very unlikely to be an "extinction level" threat. Others I do not think of as an existential dangers, more like potentially very disruptive and costly but not terminal disasters.

 

The real solution for Nos.2 and 3 is to make sure humans create self-sustaining populations off-planet. There is value in trying to predict from and prevent No.3 but the ultimate insurance is for humans to live more than in one place.

 

Regards

 

My whole point was that when these threats are at risk of happening, we will not be at the space colonization phase of our species.

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And mine is that we better pull our finger out and work on it before it's too late :-)

 

Regards

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And mine is that we better pull our finger out and work on it before it's too late :-)

 

Regards

 

We won't. If human history has proved anything, it's that we cannot. Any Apocalyptic ideas you would like to share?

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...We have a space station. And when things get serious during a war, there's usually a large influx of money. This happened in WWII, before anyone went into space. If it were to happen today then maybe we would build a more modular, self-sustainable space station or maybe even a space base.

Nuclear weapons are less effective in space and the station/base would probably have a large array of defenses against it. Its only probable weaknesses would be space junk and lasers.

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...We have a space station. And when things get serious during a war, there's usually a large influx of money. This happened in WWII, before anyone went into space. If it were to happen today then maybe we would build a more modular, self-sustainable space station or maybe even a space base.

Nuclear weapons are less effective in space and the station/base would probably have a large array of defenses against it. Its only probable weaknesses would be space junk and lasers.

 

There are more than just nuclear war as the apocalypse. I just think that one is the most likely.

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Well, it's not very interesting talking about us dying from a neutron star or black hole or a supermassive neutron hole.

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I am not as pessimistic about our prospects. I think to date humans faced lots of challenges but so far always rose to the occasion.

 

I believe we should hurry up with our space expansion plans but I am tentatively encouraged by the recent developments (e.g. SpaceX successes, Tito's manned Martian mission announcement, private plans to explore asteroids for mining etc).

 

We don't have much time though - we've had another warning just 3 weeks ago over Russia. Now, a 50km comet has been discovered on potentially collision course with Mars (1 in 600 chance of collision in October 2014 but the risk will probably be downgraded with further observations), so we better take it seriously...

 

Regards

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1. Nuclear warfare

 

The only country capable of starting one of these is N-Korea.

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Oh, neither of those 2 can start a global nuclear war. If they attack they will be quickly wiped off the map in retaliation and that will be it.

 

Only USA, Russia and China can have a sufficiently large scale nuclear war among them to degrade human civilisation significantly, but they won't do it.

 

Regards

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Oh, neither of those 2 can start a global nuclear war. If they attack they will be quickly wiped off the map in retaliation and that will be it.

 

Only USA, Russia and China can have a sufficiently large scale nuclear war among them to degrade human civilisation significantly, but they won't do it.

 

Regards

 

Accidental nuclear warfare is possible. The scares of 1983 and 1995 prove this. again, there are more doomsday scenarios.

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If they attack they will be quickly wiped off the map in retaliation and that will be it.

 

Well yes, but N-Korea's government isn't smart enough to realize that.

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