Thread: What Will End The World?

Do you mean "world" as in the planet earth or just human civilization?

Originally Posted by Peregrinus

Do you mean "world" as in the planet earth or just human civilization?
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Both I guess. The planet effects humans and humans effect humans anyway soo...

I guess its a safe bet to say man will someday end the world. Probably by global warming.

You left the most likely option. The planet's life could run out. You know, blowing up and all that. And if that doesn't happen as soon as the sun's expansion, then that is what will destroy the world.

The sun will eventially go through it's equivalent of a supernova growth, wiping out Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. So that's most likely what will destroy the world.

As for humanity, I'm guessing nuclear war. Medical pandemic a close second. More and more nations will get nuclear weaponry, and when a lot of fanatic countries get them, they probably won't be scared to use them. And I'm also guessing scientists genetically engineering new viruses will eventually have leaks that might kill us all. And there's always the nanotechnology gray gue syndrome (that's where nano technology machines designed to built things more of themselves by taking atoms from other objects glitch out and dissassemble the whole Earth and universe eventually. It's actually not as far-fetched as it sounds. Wiki it.)

Oh and I don't see why everyone is freaking out about global warming. It's actually nowhere near as severe as people think, and we could survive for a long time even if some freak disaster happens. We have shelters. We can create food in harsh conditions. We're smart.

dude, i get what you mean with the sun thing and everything but thats millions of years from now... even tho that is what most likely what will end the world, i'm talking bout something a lil more sooner.

I think I heard that sun is half way through its life span and in the future it will swallow our planet. Not sure though.

Yes it's about halfway through its lifespan totalling about 10 billion years. It's considered a medium yellow star (I think). and will eventually expand to a red giant then ultimately become a nebula, from which after billions of more years another solar system could be born.

I also think global warming will not end the Earth. The planet is very resilient and will find someway to balance it.

Global warming might very well (and probably will, if continued unabated) reduce the standard of living of human beings, especially in vulnerable developing areas, induce wars over increasingly-scarce resources, and lead to the extinction of thousands of non-human species, but it won't actually destroy the planet Earth. Even nuclear war wouldn't destroy the planet. It would likely destroy a lot of life for quite some time (leaving cockroaches and Twinkies, no doubt), but this mass of molten and solid rock with a mass of ~6*10^24 kg orbiting Sol isn't going to be physically destroyed by anything on that list except for one huge freakin' asteroid.

Originally Posted by NeAvO

I think I heard that sun is half way through its life span and in the future it will swallow our planet. Not sure though.
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I just...said that....lol

And yeah as I said before, nothing short of something huge like this will destroy Earth. If you mean mankind, then possibly. But it would not completely destroy life on Earth, and probably not all of mankind. Think about it, the meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs didn't completely anhiallate (spelling?) them, we still have animals that branched off from dinosaurs, from alligators to chickens (most likely, they're thought to have come from raptors lol). I think life will continue to exist in some form, even if it is microscopic bacteria, until the end of the Earth. Most likely Archea bacteria. They can survive burning heat, freezing cold, draught, etc. And even if a HUGE meteorite hits the Earth with enough of an impact to damage it physically, remember that (atleast if you believe in this theory) one almost definitely has hit the Earth before, and that only resulted in us getting a moon. The Earth was a lot newer, softer, and weaker then too, and it still managed to survive. I'm betting on the sun's expansion.

Can I say "Other"?

I'm a Christian... I believe the world will end when we've all done everything we were meant to do, when we've made our choices for good or evil... and then God will end the world.

But, more scientifically, a lot of the descriptions in Revelation sound like a nuclear holocaust.

Re. Global warming: I don't think this could actually end human civilization. Even if the sea levels did rise and drown coastal cities, we would just move inland. There'd be climate changes, and some areas of Earth might become deserts; but we'd just continue living in the spaces still available. Unless we were stupid enough to keep putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere after all that had happened, the earth would eventually restabilize.

Nuclear war: the only way that the world could be destroyed by nuclear war would be by mistake (which just wouldn't happen) or if someone intentionlly attempted it. Everyone knows that if one country launches nuclear missiles at another country, the country under attack and/or its allies will launch more missiles back, causing a chain reaction of nuclear warheads being detonated until the world is destroyed and nobody has any missilles left to launch. So that just wouldn't happen because there are no countrys that wish to destroy all life on Earth.

Global warming: We have all seen evidence of global warming taking its toll on the environment already, and is the most likely cause for the destruction of this planet. A lot of countrys governments aren't taking drastic enough measures to stop global warming (*cough*America*cough*) and therefore global warming will continue until it destroys this planet.

Originally Posted by secret_neo

I would choose AI too but I can only choose one rite?
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Why choose one? It's obvious how it's going to happen:

As a result of an artifical medical pandemic released upon the world in a devious plan to overthrow the governments of the leading countries, nuclear war will break out. During the war, artificial intelligence research will be trippled resulting in the creation of powerful battle droids that will walk the irradiated battlefields endlessly destroying each other. After some time, the polar icecaps will melt from the hightening temperature about the world, which will only be increased by the nuclear war.
Amongst all this chaos, mystics and magicians, those part of secret societies that have been hidden from the world until that moment, will arise to put an end to the destruction and mayhem. However, their skills would not be perfected enough and their minds not wise enough and as a result, they would end up as yet another faction within the global war. In an attempt to turn the tables in their favour, the mystics would then use the most powerful of magic known to them and horribly fail by accidentally calling down a meteor the size of half the moon to crash into the Earth causing complete and utter devastation.

Life as we know it...will end. :sweat2:

Originally Posted by Merlock

Why choose one? It's obvious how it's going to happen:

As a result of an artifical medical pandemic released upon the world in a devious plan to overthrow the governments of the leading countries, nuclear war will break out.
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In my opinion there is no such thing as nuclear war, it would be a nuclear battle if there ever were to be one. Launching a nuclear weapon could effectively destroy the rest of the world. It's all to do with the M.A.D theory (mutually assured destruction). Check this out.

In my opinion there is no such thing as nuclear war, it would be a nuclear battle if there ever were to be one. Launching a nuclear weapon could effectively destroy the rest of the world. It's all to do with the M.A.D theory (mutually assured destruction). Check this out.[/b]

Except, of course, if you have possession of nuclear weapons your sanity is not enteriely assured in the first place. That and it's possible to make a mistake. Isn't it nice to know that, technically, your life could depend on some nuclear-detection circuit not blowing out or giving the wrong signal?

Frankly I don't think the Earth itself is going anywhere. We might like to fool ourselves into believing we could spectaculary blow the world up, or at least going out with a bang, but I don't think so. Global warming would be a rather grisly, sad way to kill a species (it's not like we haven't been given dire warnings about it in the form of temperature changes, record high weather, angry scientists, etc).

Short of the entire planet just being boiled alive (not for some time yet) or the entire universe freezing over (some time but guarenteed) I think the human race is probably going to crawl along and survive, even if we kill the majority of ourselves. I certainly don't think we've learnt our lesson when it comes to being responsible with technology.

Sometimes I doubt if we're even capable of doing so and will be doomed to repeat our stupidities over and over at the expense of pretty much everyone else. It's 10am. Too early in the morning to be contemplating our destruction.

We, humans, are WAY to insignificant to end this world. even when we end our own existance it'll be Global warming that drowns us all and makes life impossible. And it's not even our fault. The earth's atmosphere simply holds the sun's warmth: We are merely speeding up the process somewhat.

It's funny how the source of life, water, will also be the same element that washes us away again. and then still: aquatic life will flurish on a waterplanet resulting from that.

The end of humanity will not mean the end of the world: I think it'll simply give rise to a new dominant species. untill the temperatures rise to the level where there's no life possible anymore.

Or perhaps life, like it has before, shall addapt to even that. No one knows.

I think a nuclear war is unreasonable because they WILL realise that most likely means the end of the Earth, or a great part of it, and they will not be stupid enough to let that happen.

I think Global Warming, or a medical pandemic.
AI is not even an option.

Originally Posted by TweaK

AI is not even an option.
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Yeah, AI was a stupid one. How could robots and computers take over the world, they can't even get up the stairs.

I think AI is a distinct possiblity in the future. I can't find a better definition of a human being other than "a bunch of valves and levers", and eventually I think they'll get to that stage. It's a bit dumb to think that nothing could possibly emulate us, because, well, it could. Not that I'm expecting to see a marching i-robot army coming down the road with Will Smith running behind them or anything in the next sixty years.

Don't let the fat bolding [banned term] geeks fool you, they're just a way to get your guard down for the next invasion of emotionless robots.

I added AI cuz if you think about it, you'll see what I mean.

If technology continues to grow, and expanding through AI, it would be cheaper for industries and and nearly all jobs to replace humans with robots. More productivity, cheaper, and efficient. this would lead to widespread poverty among billions of laid off workers, creating drastic increases in crime and civil wars. eventually leading to a nuclear world war 3. once AI are so advanced, humans (probably America) will give rights to the machines and let them live among us. and more lay offs will arise when humans are replaced by AI in creating the AI. now its machines creating machines. and sometime, some stupid scientist will give them emotions and we could kinda guess what would happen there.

Yeah. AI will increase and stuff, but I doubt AI will take over humanity. After all those doom-thinkers' films and that kinda stuff, they'll be sure make 'em not powerful enough to wipe out humanity.

Originally Posted by TweaK

Yeah. AI will increase and stuff, but I doubt AI will take over humanity. After all those doom-thinkers' films and that kinda stuff, they'll be sure make 'em not powerful enough to wipe out humanity.
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Plus we'd never be able to get them to simulate human emotions well at all. An angry robot? or a greedy robot? I don't think so.

They'd never have any reason to attempt to take over humanity, and they would never come anywhere near to being intelligent enough to plan and coordinate a successful attack.

My point exactly.

On the other hand, Global Warming is a much likelier possibility.
Global Warming is a natural process, but humanity speeds it up with cars and that kinda stuff.

A Nuclear War would be pretty likely too, but not likely enough to wipe out entire humanity or end the world. I made my statement about the world leaders not being that dumb above.

Medical Pandemic. Hmm. Wipe out a lot of people? Yes. Wipe out humanity? Definitely not. Any pandemic that has appeared on the Earth since, let's say 100 years ago, has been found a fix for - or at decrease the efficiency of the pandemic before they found a fix. I'm looking at you, bird flu.

Asteroid? It has happened before. Did it "end the world"? No. Did it destroy most of the living things? Yes. When was that? When the dinosaurs existed. We are in 2006 right now. Scientists can see about 10 years ahead of asteroid activity, and by the time they think "Omg, 10 years from now the Earth will be hit by a huge meteor!", we have about 10 years to start building massive underground bases and find a way to stop the meteor.

The sun absorbing planets and becoming a supernova is more of a possibility. :F

As for that Sun thing, I've just found some info saying that by the year five billion, the sun will burn itself out and will engulf the Earth. I couldn't really give a fuck less, since i'll be dead by then!!!

The year five billion!!

I'm not sure how reliable this info is though, don't blame me if this site is a load of B/S.

"The Sun has been active for approximately 4.6 billion years. However, it only has enough fuel to go on for another five billion years (Y5B). At the end of its life, the Sun will start to fuse helium into heavier elements and begin to swell up, ultimately growing so large that it will engulf the Earth. Life on earth will change as we know it. First we will have mildly warmer temperatures, then a heat wave will be with us, and finally it will get cold....real cold. Thus, the Year Five Billion will be here. Will we be prepared for the billionennium™ bug ? Y5B.com will try to help."

Maybe we could all turn the radiators up real high?

ok, but how do the planets orbit the sun? from the surface? or the core? if we orbit because of the surface, when the sun expands, wouldn't this just make the solar system bigger and the planets would move with the suns surface? would the distance between the planet and sun stay constant as it expands this way? or if its from the stable core, which stays steadily on the XYZ axis, well, then of course the sun will expands and reach out through the solar system engolfing earth right?