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"When the end of mankind arrives..."

What do you think will cause it? It is going to end for sure, because the sun will burn out, but that won't be for billions of years and I'm inclined to think that mankind will end along time before then. So what will it be?

A nuclear war?
An asteroid collision?
Machines taking control?
The "grey goo" theory?
The prophesies in Revelations occuring?

Or something else?

Whatever it may be, I wouldn't be surprised if it was something humans created themselves, back-firing.

It could all begin with these Money problems.
The entire would could fall-apart over "financial disagreements" and eventually destroy one-another, until there is nothing left for the remaining to to survive on...

And who says the popular "Machines taking-over" idea - which is repeatedly used in all the latest films - could really be so far-fetched?
Technology is ever-evolving at an incredible rate - especially in Japan.
If we CAN one-day create "robots" to replicate ourselves, who's to say that they, too, wouldn't want to be the dominant species of plant Earth?
Who's to say we'd all even get-along - like in A.I.??

Or maybe it will, simply, be a Comet - like the one that, apparently, killed-off every-last-one of the dinosaurs (...except for Nessy)...

Will Aliens have something to do with it?
Many believe they started it all; who's to say that won't "finish it"??


But if you ask me, it'll be down to us.
Something we do, at some point in the non-too-distant future.


Honestly, I don't see the human-race lasting until the year 3000!
I just can't see things lasting that well, for so-long, with the number of potential problems we have appearing right now.

Belldandy wrote:
> You generally need a world war for that kind of thing.

Yeah - sad but true.
I was thinking the other day about how far we'd be behind without the big wars. Neccessity is the mother of invention and all that.

Nanotechnology seems to be the 'next big step' - like you said with cold fusion, it more when than if.
Although I just read Prey (Micheal Crichton) - enough to put anyone off it.

Icarus wrote:
> What is this grey goo theory?

Nanotechnology discovers self-replication by itself and runs amok. Prince Charles is very excited about it by all accounts.

Going back to the original post, the end of mankind will probably be due to the fact that when we've all done this great exodus for the stars (necessary due to the imminent death of our own Sun) we'll have had the good sense to leave the women behind.

So although our remaining years will be spent in spaceships looking for habitable planets, we'll at least die out as a species without being nagged.

What is this grey goo theory?

You generally need a world war for that kind of thing.

Isn't it about time we had some kind of massive scientific breakthrough that will totally change everything forever?
*Breath*

Or are we just going to do stuff a bit at a time like now.


...


I feel very strange tonight.

Thing is, ever since man put some kind of writing implement to paper people have been saying "man's destructive he'll kill himself off" etc, yet, hey presto, we're still here.

Same with natural resources, a report drawn up at the start of the last century said that by 1920 the reserves of oil/gas would be used up. But we found more, and found alternatives.

Right now Cold Fusion is so nearly within our grasp, it's no longer if but when, and once we crack that it really opens up new areas.

As I mentioned before, our progress as humans mapped out on a clock face would amount to 4 minutes. The whole 12 hours would indicate the life of earth.

Since dinosaurs outlived us by a massive margin (i think they clocked up around an hour of time) either:

a) humans are in their relative infancy and just beginning to develop our skills and therefore have thousands of years before them, or
b) our natural capacity within ourselves to destroy all and sundry will end all human life as we know it, or
c) an unexpected disaster will occur, wiping out the human race, or lastly
d) a total consumption in natural resources (including the sun turning into a red dwarf and slowly dying) will result in the death of our species unless technology has enabled us to colonise other planets.

Or, lastly:

e) I've got no idea what I'm talking about but I like to wax lyrical about subjects I have no knowledge in.

Don't get into the nu-hippy balls.

A slightly morbid thought I often have is: how it would be good to be here on Earth when the final catastrophe happens [say an all-consuming disease], and by some ridiculous twist of fate I'm the only human to survive and I become like the Omega Man.