The next century..., what will happen? Options

[EmeraldKnight]

I'm reading this very interesting book right now.. called
Our Final Hour, and its by Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of England..

Anyways, he forcasts that the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that humandkind will survive to the end of the 21st century

Then he discusses some potential devestating scenarios:
1. Technology shock- 21st century technology not just altering how humans live, but humans themselves.. creating superhumans or something (like GATACCA); or perhaps superintelligent robots (I, Robot)

2. Doomsday Clock- the neverending threat of nuclear war.. we can always dismantle nuclear weapons.. but we cannot uninvent them..

3. Bioterror/bioerror- nuclear megaterrorism, biological/chemical weapons of mass destruction (remember the anthrax? smallpox.. etc), laboratory errors (releasing viral epidemics or something..),

4. Increasing technological power- just a few ppl can render devestating consequences on our globally linked societies

5. Uncontrolled technological growth- constraints on research extremely difficult to research, I recall a quote from somewhere.. about how our technology is moving at such a pace that our humanity simply cannot keep up; everyone wants to discover new things, create new sophisticated technology.. that few stop to think about the possible consequences of their actions (ie. creators of atomic bomb)

6. Near earth objects (NEO)- aka.. asteroids

7. Hard to forecast natural disasters- extremely violent earthquakes, supereruptions (would block out sun for a year or more..)

8. Human environmental threats- humans perpetrating 6th extinction (largest = 250 million years ago; second largest killed dinosaurs; humans wiping out species and causing extinction and eroding biodiversity); unsustainable population growth, climate change (global warming, hole in ozone, melting of polar ice caps)

9. High risk experiments- nuclear weapons testing (past example); most risks very improbably but include: particle accelerators (unsure of consequences, might destroy earth, destroy universe.. [I can explain this in more depth if necessary])

Then the book goes on with a chapter about whether we can realli predict if humanity's days are numbered; other chapters:
1. The End of Science? How far we've truly progressed and how much we know.. rather interesting section
2. Does our fate have cosmic signifiance?- life on other planets, have we been visited.. etc..
3. Beyond Earth- probing into space, our future.. etc..

END BOOK DESCRIPTION

This book realli made me think.. how about you?
Will we survive the next century?
I mean.. there're far more risks now than there ever were.. it all depends on us.. our decisions..
(Perhaps this might go well in lounge.. but we'll see..)

[x rOck mai sOcks...]

we`re not even guarenteed to live tomorrow...so the future is always clouded...and its supposed to be...because you make your own future, like you said...it all depends on us.. our decisions =]

[Sumiaki]

emerald, you fergot one more thing... People like us are gonna be growin older... so someone has to take responsibility hahahahaha Can you imagine yourself as a old person? Imagine old people using slang and playing videogames instead of chess. Hahahahhahaha... juss a thought...


But yeah i agree with the reasons...

[angel-roh]

i think the next century is going to a bit different ... like the technologies. cause since the asians are inventing a lot of ideas like the buildings, cellular phone, tv, and etc. so yeah but i dont think there will be no flying cars or like flying boat or anything haha... well if the spiderman movie was real, then the next century would create flying cars and flying boats^^ i dont know if we are gona survive til then cause north korean have created nuclear bombs... i mean that's crazy... i mean do you think they will keep that nuclear bombs forever and ever? i bet they are gona use it someday. but i don't know... if God can help us, and if God will let us live through the centuries... that would be nice. I mean through God, he can do everything.

[Dopo]

Mankind will die anyways, so there's no point in stopping all of this. Eventually, something will kill us.

[angel-roh]

i think i know how we can get killed... i havent see day after tomorrow...but i think cause of that... ppls will die? like the revelation that God has created!

[rnrn897]

uhh.. not sure wtf ur talkin bout, but if ur askin if humans will live long..
i don think so.. were already running out of freshwater to drink, and each year the earth gets 1 degree hotter cuz of ppl messin up the ozone layer.. 1 day were all gonna die, get over it :]

[EmeraldKnight]

uhh.. not sure wtf ur talkin bout, but if ur askin if humans will live long..
i don think so.. were already running out of freshwater to drink, and each year the earth gets 1 degree hotter cuz of ppl messin up the ozone layer.. 1 day were all gonna die, get over it :] 

Mankind will die anyways, so there's no point in stopping all of this. Eventually, something will kill us.

Wow you guys are cynics.. I'm not talking hundreds or thousands of years in the future.. this is OUR century.. OUR lifetimes..

[ComradeRed]

1. Technology shock- 21st century technology not just altering how humans live, but humans themselves.. creating superhumans or something (like GATACCA); or perhaps superintelligent robots (I, Robot)

This isn't devastating. In this case, humans themselves BECOME something better. So while humankind becomes "extinct" in the classical sense, it is merely because our species has become better ("participant selection") -- not because it has died off ("natural selection").

2. Doomsday Clock- the neverending threat of nuclear war.. we can always dismantle nuclear weapons.. but we cannot uninvent them..

Chances to that are very low. Even if a rogue organization acquires nuclear weapons, chances are basically zero that it would acquire enough of them to cause the end of the world.

3. Bioterror/bioerror- nuclear megaterrorism, biological/chemical weapons of mass destruction (remember the anthrax? smallpox.. etc), laboratory errors (releasing viral epidemics or something..),

The human race is so large and diverse that any single epidemic is almost certainly not going to be albe to wipe us out before we develop specific devenses.

4. Increasing technological power- just a few ppl can render devestating consequences on our globally linked societies

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Remember, power is mostly used to check other power. By empowering the individual, we check the power of not only other individuals, but also of governments, which are empirically more dangerous.

5. Uncontrolled technological growth- constraints on research extremely difficult to research, I recall a quote from somewhere.. about how our technology is moving at such a pace that our humanity simply cannot keep up; everyone wants to discover new things, create new sophisticated technology.. that few stop to think about the possible consequences of their actions (ie. creators of atomic bomb)

Once again, the slim chance that this will lead to the end of hte human race is much smaller than the chance that it will help us survive, and improve our lives.

6. Near earth objects (NEO)- aka.. asteroids

7. Hard to forecast natural disasters- extremely violent earthquakes, supereruptions (would block out sun for a year or more..)

8. Human environmental threats- humans perpetrating 6th extinction (largest = 250 million years ago; second largest killed dinosaurs; humans wiping out species and causing extinction and eroding biodiversity); unsustainable population growth, climate change (global warming, hole in ozone, melting of polar ice caps)

These are precisely the threats that more technology would guard against.

9. High risk experiments- nuclear weapons testing (past example); most risks very improbably but include: particle accelerators (unsure of consequences, might destroy earth, destroy universe.. [I can explain this in more depth if necessary])

More realistic, still unlikely. It COULD destroy stuff, it could destroy stuff about to destroy us, such as those asteroids you mentioned earlier.

I think our odds of surviving to 2100 are greater than 99%.

[islandkiss]

wow.. it's scary to think about

[JlIaTMK]

i believe in destiny.... ur destinies waiting to happen but ur the one who creates it.... u never now what might happen.... be careful

[greeneggs]

7. Hard to forecast natural disasters- extremely violent earthquakes, supereruptions (would block out sun for a year or more..)

wow that is scary..