Humanity to become extinct?

#121

To become extinct something really bad has to happen. Gas giant Jupiter protects the Earth from killer asteroids, unfortunately sometimes one gets through and could hit the Earth. If it’s larger than 10 kilometers in size it will most likely wipe out humanity but probably not entirely.

A large coronal mass ejection from the Sun could easily wipe out most of our electronic devices, our entire society would collapse. The Earth’s magnetic field would get messed up which has severe consequences that will turn Earth into Mars v2.

#122

We’ve gotten hit by extraterrestrial rock before and we’ve survived apparently.

#123

It’s pretty much impossible to get rid of all life on Earth unless the scenario happens where Earth becomes Mars v2 or if Earth collides with another planet (has happened before, this is the reason we have a moon it’s the remnant from this collision) but this collision occured WAY before life even started.

#124

I certainly don’t hope the “Great Dying” happens again anytime soon. Fucking killed 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, about 96% of all marine species and an estimated 70% of land species (copied from wikipedia, couldn’t be arsed to write it all down). Incase anyone doesn’t know what the “Great Dying” means: It’s the mass extinction at the end of the Permian. Just throwing that out there.

#125

Exactly, as far as we know life itself has gotten one big hit from space and humanity has gotten a smaller but pretty major one. It’s going to take an act of god to wipe us and all life out.

#126

Well in 5 billion years I can assure you life on this planet will end, our star the Sun won’t last forever.

#127

True that, but I’m sure we’ve all taken that account.

#128

I actually have to edit that post because the Sun becomes larger and hotter over time which will eventually lead to the fusion of helium which turns the Sun into a red Giant that will eat the Earth.

Due to this expansion, life on Earth would already vanish within 1 billion years from now. So if life were to end right now then Earth wouldn’t have enough time to recover - so let us hope nothing happens. :slight_smile:

#129

5 Billion years from now we’ll probably be hanging with the green men from Alpha Centauri in our space cars at the Restaurant at the end of the universe

[COLOR=‘Black’]And waiting for Black Mesa

#130

Which of course, is impossible.

#131

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

#132

Give a man 500 years ago a cell phone and his brain will explode
Same thing x 1000000 if someone gives you technology 5 billion years from now

#133

I was referencing the Hitchhiker’s Guide, but you remind of a relevant quote.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

  • Arthur C. Clarke
#134

I think Douglas Adams (or perhaps not) said “Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology”…but seriously, that Clarke quote is one of the main reasons I have difficulty believing in any deity.

Who is to say that any deity of man isn’t simply a “sufficiently advanced” living creature? Watch the Star Trek: TNG episode “Devil’s Due” for a prime example of this.

#135

I swear those fuckers have targeting systems. :wink:

#136

I think 2001 ASO is a better example of godlike evolution but fair enough.

Also, Clarke definitely said that, it’s his defining quote.

#137

I have already come up with a way to back up my mind on digital media, but according to my calculations I would need 101 years to write an x86 emulator so that I could think, damn it I just needed an extra year. :frowning:

I think a 100 years from now we will face extinction but will just barely make it, with 99.99% of the population and all of our history lost and doomed to make the same mistakes again.

People are going to try and leave traces of our civilization but will fail… In the far future people will be finding deep underground a lot of random shit leftover from our era and they will blatantly misinterpret it and sell it to some random museums, eventually they too will die out and get replaced by a different species developing strength and intelligence superior to humans.

or… the planet could collide with an asteroid the size of the sun tomorrow

#138

I highly doubt we’ll be facing extinction any time soon…

#139

okay but you know someone went back in time and nuked the dinosaurs so that we could exist, it’s an infinite loop

#140

Just to remind y’all: this thread is only about humanity becoming extinct. Not about all life on Earth. It takes far less of a catastrophe to kill off all living creatures on the land, than it takes to wipe out life in the oceans. But as land animals that we are, chances are high we cannot survive one of the following scenarios AND recover quickly enough to survive the next global catastrophe by getting off this planet:

  1. Worldwide Nuclear War
  2. Supervirus Outbreak (uncontrolled biological warfare)
  3. The ocean’s ecosystems failing, so that everything in them aside from bacteria dies. (has happened before). The consequences would be catastrophical for all life on Earth.
  4. Yellowstone supervolcano eruption (overdue)
  5. Gamma rays from space (highly unlikely, but if they don’t wipe us out immediately they will most likely sterilize us)
  6. Sun flare hitting the Earth
  7. Asteroid, comet or other planetoid body colliding with Earth OR the moon, destabilizing its orbit and either sending it off into space or making it collide with us.

There could be many other reasons, but I cannot think of any right now. All of them are unlikely, mind you. But Earth’s history has taught us that impossible odds mean nothing in the course of time.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.