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..)

[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..