posted
I cannot think of a single disaster that could destroy humanity. Either we are too numerous, or too intelligent to be destroyed by these disastors
Comet: New technology is arising to counter these, which would ultimately make them undangerous.
Nuclear war: Every area of the world would have to be bombed, which is extremely unlikely. Politically, it would be almost imposible to launch that many nukes, to destroy mankind.
Can anyone think of something that could destroy the world? Funny ideas accepted too!
Posts: 2121 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Ahhh yes, but that will be in about 5 Billion years. By then, we will have colonized other solar systems, and saved ourselves from this disatser.
Posts: 2121 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Well, really. The sun goes nova. Better still, a nearby star (as in, within a few hundred parsecs) goes supernova. Some idiot makes a black hole large enough to survive for some period, and drops it into the centre of the Earth. An alien race drops a large nickel-iron asteroid into the Sun - solar flares, yay - or the Earth. (And I do think a comet shield is some decades away; you don't have to have aliens, even. Right now, if an asteroid was headed for the Sun, I don't think we'd detect it.)
There is no theoretical upper limit on the size of fusion bombs. So in principle you only need one. Or put a rocket on the Moon and knock it out of orbit, so it hits the Earth. Now, that would be a bang.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Are there any stars that will go supernova soon? Negatory according to what I've read. How do you create a black hole without destroying the Earth first? That kind of technology won't be around for a very long time. An asteroid would have to be so unimaginably gigantic to destroy the sun, or even make a change, I think we would dectect it. Besides, how would an asteroid get that big? Knock the moon out of orbit with a rocket? That would have to be a VERY powerful rocket.
There, I have annilhated your arguments. Hahaha!
Posts: 2121 | Registered: Oct 2005
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No, Bush will ban ice cream and have anyone who makes/buys/sells/eats it be publicly executed.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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And to think, I just came here to snark that if something did wipe out the human race, I'm sure it would be Pres. Bush's fault.
Posts: 880 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Are we talking about the complete extinction of the race, or the collapse of human civilization?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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SteveRogers: Unless the only living humans are clustered in California and Florida, the melting of the polar ice caps won't kill us all.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Yellowstone erupting would be a pretty big deal. Between the immediate effect of wiping out the west coast, the tremors and shockwaves all over the globe, the economic disruption, and the dust and ash it would kick up... I can see that being pretty devastating. And there's really nothing we can do about it if it decides to go.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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"We'll all go together when we go, suffused in an incandescent glow. They'll be no pain and misery when the earth is our rotisserie. Yes we'll all go together when we go!"
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I think there are a number of things -- nuclear war, flu epidemics, widespread famine -- that could, either alone or (as is more likely) in conjunction with each other, effectively shatter and then destroy human civilization. And once that civilization is destroyed, we'd become vulnerable to any number of normal extinction events.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I think that life as we know it shall end when George Lucas's next adaptation of Star Wars comes out. When does the three-dimensional version come out?
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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I don't think we're really that close to having a viable asteroid/comet survival plan, unless we pull a Deep Impact and burrow underground until the crap passes us by. But if it's big enough, that won't be enough.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Comet: New technology is arising to counter these, which would ultimately make them undangerous.
I have serious doubts as to our ability in the near future(next 20 years) to be able to automatically detect comets/asteroids in enough time to be able to launch something capable of doing anything about it.
What are these new technologies you are talking about?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Hmm, a miniature black hole passing through the Earth could do us all in. We have observed holes as small as pluto in the past and they are hard to detect.
And I want to see a Death Star built by humans. Or even better a Dysons Sphere.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Are there enough building materials in the solar system to build a Dyson sphere at earth orbit? It would require something like 2.81497*10^29 cubic meters of material if the shell of the sphere averaged one meter thick. That would need something like 1.65197*10^15 earths' worth of material.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Hmm, true. But I can always hope that Humanity will eventually build a Dysons Sphere around our star within the the next 700 or at least the next 1000.
And a Dysons Sphere is a giant structure around a star or a collection of satalites surounding one.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Well, the Enderverse ahd spread to a hundred worlds in only 3000 years. So that might provide enough materials for its construction. And if Ender could do it, so can we. (minus the faster than light communication)
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Which would you rather see Reticulum. A Dyson's Sphere or a Death Star? Or a combination of both?
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Dec 2005
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The only danger to the human race is global warming. We should start to counter it now by sending the world into nuclear winter to balance things out.
*edited because i forgot how to spell to
Posts: 278 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Mazel Tov! I would rather see a Dyson sphere, which I believe ranks as a type II on the Kardashev Scale.
Posts: 2121 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by String: The only danger to the human race is global warming. We should start to counter it now by sending the world into nuclear winter to balance things out.
*edited because i forgot how to spell to
Umm, you do know that would kill almost all Earthly life. Right? Posts: 1941 | Registered: Dec 2005
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