Poll: The End is Nigh (for human life on Earth)

[Rational Agnostic]

Side note: ecological collapse wouldn't end human life, but would only kill perhaps 99% or some such, and reduce the survivors to something slightly like one of those movies where the a few survivors are scrambling, salvaging, fighting for brief brutal lives in the ruins.

...In some ways similar to how we think human life was like 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.

An asteroid could certainly do it, in contrast. A super volcano might, but is also far more likely than a big enough asteroid or comet.

So, while I acceded 'super volcano' as the most plausible on that level, the real answer instead is "other", but in a good way: We will be transformed, for the better. (some, many will not, by their direct, conscious choice to reject the One Who taught "love one another")

The "super volcano" in Yellowstone is largely a myth. It would not destroy humanity, not even close. A large asteroid or nuclear war WOULD.

Will Yellowstone Erupt Soon and Kill Us All?

 

[halbhh]

The "super volcano" in Yellowstone is largely a myth. It would not destroy humanity, not even close. A large asteroid or nuclear war WOULD.

Will Yellowstone Erupt Soon and Kill Us All?

I was not thinking Yellowstone. You are aware that there are many candidate super volcanoes locations, right? If not, you can read on it quite easily, or ask me and I'll search up an article if you prefer. Nevertheless, to repeat myself, it's still not very likely, as I pointed out already.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Extreme Climate Change and Global Pandemics are probably less likely, but Unknown Consequences of any developments might be another.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news.../the-12-threats-to-human-civilization-ranked/

The pdf file that went into all these has vanished (from 2015). More here though:

12 risks that threaten human civilisation
12-Risks-with-infinite-impact-full-report-1.pdf | Global Catastrophic Risk | Risk

Next in line is self learning AI.

 

[Twilight Hue]

We might face societal collapse and even death on a mass scale, but complete extinction is extremely unlikely.

I'm waiting for screamers to become a reality.

 

[stvdv]

Extreme Climate Change and Global Pandemics are probably less likely, but Unknown Consequences of any developments might be another.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news.../the-12-threats-to-human-civilization-ranked/

The pdf file that went into all these has vanished (from 2015). More here though:

12 risks that threaten human civilisation
12-Risks-with-infinite-impact-full-report-1.pdf | Global Catastrophic Risk | Risk

poll-the-end-is-nigh-for-human-life-on-earth

I do not believe all human life will end any time soon

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I voted only for Artificial Intelligence, as I really do see that as the primary threat to human life. A truly artificial intelligence would also possess the ability to increase its intelligence at will -- while humans have to rely on evolution. AI is truly frightening, to me, because I've been in IT for so very, very long.

However, my second choice would have to be Republicans running a pandemic. Have a little look at some recent stats (June 24) for new COVID-19 cases in 3 Republican states (in a country run by a republican President) compared to your northern neighbour at the same time -- run by a LIberal government:

New COVID-19 cases on June 24

Florida (pop 21.5 million) -- 5508
Texas (pop 29 million) -- 5489
Arizona (pop 7.3 million) -- 3541

Canada (pop 37.5 million) --- 279

 

[cataway]

perhaps non of the above . scripture dose point to a time called the great tribulation . its not a earth ending event

 

[Dave Watchman]

I put: * Something else

(explain): Do I have to?

The Biblical end.

Happening now.

The Lord is coming back to roll this place up like a scroll.

Lift up your heads.

That's all folks.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I put: * Something else

(explain): Do I have to?

The Biblical end.

Happening now.

The Lord is coming back to roll this place up like a scroll.

Lift up your heads.

That's all folks.

"The Lord is coming back to roll this place up like a scroll."

Some "Lord." You can have him....

 

[Dave Watchman]

"The Lord is coming back to roll this place up like a scroll."

Some "Lord." You can have him....

I do.

I abideth in Him, and He in me.

For without Him, I can do nothing.

It's not personal.

This stuff was baked in the cake.

Like Jesus said early in His ministry:

"The TIME is fulfilled.
​

The heptads of Daniel 9 have repeated.

Times up.

Until the times of the gentiles are finished.

But we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth where we can abide in righteousness.

Как мертвец, я рухнул:
"Я первый, я последний
Теперь восстань, сын мой"
, - и вот, десять тысяч царей
И всякое создание поклоняются.
Каждый глаз был на чем-то одном,
Один человек
Был похож на льва, как ягненок,
Как будто он убит, он держит план
Войны и мира с человеком
И царствует на земле.

Святой, святой, тот,
Кто был и есть, и должен прийти
В одеянии, красном, как кровь.
Он выходит,
Скачет, как молния в небе,
На военном коне, он приближается,
Тот же, кого мы распяли,
Вернется снова.

Святой, святой, тот,
Кто был и есть, и должен прийти
В одеянии, красном, как кровь.
Он выходит,
Скачет, как молния в небе,
На военном коне, он приближается,
Тот же, кого мы распяли,
Вернется снова.

Holy, Holy, is the One
Who was and is, and is to come
In a robe as red as blood
He comes forth

Ride like lightning in the sky
On the war horse He draws nigh
The same One we crucified
Will return again

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I do.

I abideth in Him, and He in me.

For without Him, I can do nothing.

It's not personal.

This stuff was baked in the cake.

Like Jesus said early in His ministry:

"The TIME is fulfilled.
​

The heptads of Daniel 9 have repeated.

Times up.

Until the times of the gentiles are finished.

But we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth where we can abide in righteousness.

Как мертвец, я рухнул:
"Я первый, я последний
Теперь восстань, сын мой"
, - и вот, десять тысяч царей
И всякое создание поклоняются.
Каждый глаз был на чем-то одном,
Один человек
Был похож на льва, как ягненок,
Как будто он убит, он держит план
Войны и мира с человеком
И царствует на земле.

Святой, святой, тот,
Кто был и есть, и должен прийти
В одеянии, красном, как кровь.
Он выходит,
Скачет, как молния в небе,
На военном коне, он приближается,
Тот же, кого мы распяли,
Вернется снова.

Святой, святой, тот,
Кто был и есть, и должен прийти
В одеянии, красном, как кровь.
Он выходит,
Скачет, как молния в небе,
На военном коне, он приближается,
Тот же, кого мы распяли,
Вернется снова.

Holy, Holy, is the One
Who was and is, and is to come
In a robe as red as blood
He comes forth

Ride like lightning in the sky
On the war horse He draws nigh
The same One we crucified
Will return again

The perfect place for the classic response.......


Meh, whatever!

 

[Dave Watchman]

The perfect place for the classic response.......


Meh, whatever!

You mean: Everything But the Kitchen Sink ?

Throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And woe unto them that are with child,
and to them that give suck in those days!​

I'm speechless.

Be silent before the Lord.

Be silent before the Day of the Lord.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

You mean: Everything But the Kitchen Sink ?

Throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And woe unto them that are with child,
and to them that give suck in those days!​

I'm speechless.

Be silent before the Lord.

Be silent before the Day of the Lord.

Yes, well -- you need to understand first that I don't believe in "the Lord," or any other deities for that matter. Nor Santa, pixies, unicorns, fairies, elves, ogres, demons, Satan or "ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night" that I think any "Lord" needs to preserve us from.

And anybody who gets off on things like "woe unto them..." I find just perilously tiresome. You enjoy your woe. I prefer the reality and joy of my life.

 

[Heyo]

I do.

I abideth in Him, and He in me.

For without Him, I can do nothing.

It's not personal.

This stuff was baked in the cake.

Like Jesus said early in His ministry:

"The TIME is fulfilled.
​

The heptads of Daniel 9 have repeated.

Times up.

Until the times of the gentiles are finished.

But we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth where we can abide in righteousness.

Как мертвец, я рухнул:
"Я первый, я последний
Теперь восстань, сын мой"
, - и вот, десять тысяч царей
И всякое создание поклоняются.
Каждый глаз был на чем-то одном,
Один человек
Был похож на льва, как ягненок,
Как будто он убит, он держит план
Войны и мира с человеком
И царствует на земле.

Святой, святой, тот,
Кто был и есть, и должен прийти
В одеянии, красном, как кровь.
Он выходит,
Скачет, как молния в небе,
На военном коне, он приближается,
Тот же, кого мы распяли,
Вернется снова.

Святой, святой, тот,
Кто был и есть, и должен прийти
В одеянии, красном, как кровь.
Он выходит,
Скачет, как молния в небе,
На военном коне, он приближается,
Тот же, кого мы распяли,
Вернется снова.

Holy, Holy, is the One
Who was and is, and is to come
In a robe as red as blood
He comes forth

Ride like lightning in the sky
On the war horse He draws nigh
The same One we crucified
Will return again

For two thousand years generation after generation has believed that the second coming will be in their lifetime. How often does someone has to cry "wolf" before you stop believing him?

 

[Mock Turtle]

Nuclear war hands down. Climate change will be disastrous but it won't kill everyone. Asteroids are a possibility but major impacts are often millions of years apart. Nuclear weapons are the biggest imminent concern IMO.

I'd like to think asteroids were statistically unlikely too but with all that junk out there I'm not so sure we can rely on such.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I don't really anticipate the extinction of humanity so much as the collapse of civilization.

Nuclear war -- A full-scale WWIII style scenario such as was anticipated during the Cold War could come close to an extinction level event. Even then, I would expect a few percent of humanity to survive, but civilization would probably collapse into a full-frontal post-apocalyptic scenario. That was then. Today the more likely nuclear war scenario theses days is a smaller regional nuclear war, such as India-Pakistan, Iran-Israel or North Korea nuking Seoul, Hawaii and maybe California and the US responding with nuclear weapons. It would rock the world and cost millions or tens of millions of lives, but it wouldn't be an extinction level event. It might trigger a global scramble as other countries try to reposition their own fortunes, so it might be accompanied by lots of conventional war as the globe rebalances.

Ecological collapse -- I expect many animal species to go extinct in coming years, but humanity will continue to multiply. I don't expect climate change to have a big impact for many years to come.

Major Asteroid Impact -- Huge extinction level impact, but correspondingly low probability. Might conceivably kill all life on Earth, even bacteria.

Supervolcano -- Higher probability but lower impact. Not an extinction level event, but it might trigger big global economic and geopolitical changes.

Nanotechnology -- A bigger danger than many people think, but not something I worry about at night. The end-of-the-world potential would depend on what kind of nanotechnology it was and what it did.

Synthetic biology - Like nanotechnology, but higher probability and greater potential lethality. I can imagine genetically engineered things escaping from labs (or being released by doomsday cultists or by teen-aged zit-faced basement biohackers for LOLs) that spread as easily as the common cold and are 100% fatal. Millions, hundreds of millions, billions of deaths, coronavirus style lockdowns on steroids, martial law, economic and social collapse, radio and TV signing off for the last time... Maybe a few survivors, maybe not. Either way, our world gone for good.

AI -- For some reason I've never seen this one to be as big a threat as many people do. We will need to see AIs that are general cognizers able to think about anything, not just the tasks they were designed for.

Global System Collapse -- I think that this one is probable, and perhaps coming soon. I don't expect industrial civilization to disappear though it will probably shrink. I do expect Western Civilization to collapse. We are already seeing that starting. The future isn't likely to be a place that most of us will find attractive, a place that still values free thought and individual liberty. With the end of free thought, scientific advancement will slow, intellectual life with become rote and formulaic, and the world might slip into a sort of cultural stasis, where culture doesn't change a whole lot from century to century.

A lot of good points here, and I would agree about all the technological ones, in that it is quite difficult to know the effects of most of these, particularly when we can't know for sure the direction our societies will take in the next few centuries - if we survive that long of course - but I suspect we will.

 

[Mock Turtle]

poll-the-end-is-nigh-for-human-life-on-earth

I do not believe all human life will end any time soon

Neither do I, but one can test the water, so to speak, as to where the fears might come from - that is, from those less likely to believe in any divine aspect producing such - for us all being such bad boys (and girls).

 

[Mock Turtle]

I voted only for Artificial Intelligence, as I really do see that as the primary threat to human life. A truly artificial intelligence would also possess the ability to increase its intelligence at will -- while humans have to rely on evolution. AI is truly frightening, to me, because I've been in IT for so very, very long.

However, my second choice would have to be Republicans running a pandemic. Have a little look at some recent stats (June 24) for new COVID-19 cases in 3 Republican states (in a country run by a republican President) compared to your northern neighbour at the same time -- run by a LIberal government:

New COVID-19 cases on June 24

Florida (pop 21.5 million) -- 5508
Texas (pop 29 million) -- 5489
Arizona (pop 7.3 million) -- 3541

Canada (pop 37.5 million) --- 279

The AI question is a difficult one, if we begin to rely on it to run or administer our existence - where some have looked sufficiently far into the future and where we can't anticipate what such an advanced intelligence might do. Many don't seem able to anticipate such intelligences being so much more powerful than humans but I can, and like yourself, do see it as a worry.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I put: * Something else

(explain): Do I have to?

The Biblical end.

Happening now.

The Lord is coming back to roll this place up like a scroll.

Lift up your heads.

That's all folks.

Biblical endings could have been argued for at many points in the past. Why not just accept that much of what was written was mainly about local events rather than the long-term? Not think every era has it's own particular set of problems - and not necessary being signs of anything other than current circumstances?

 

[stvdv]

Neither do I, but one can test the water, so to speak, as to where the fears might come from

Yes, it's an interesting poll. Good to see that only19 on RF believed in such a catastrophy.so far. Would have been nice to have the option "I do not believe in such a catastrophy to happen", to compare how many with fear and how many without fear though