Famine? Over population? World War? Draught? Global Warming Radiation? Floods? Add your own! When do you expect your "event" to happen? In your lifetime?
"I do not know what weapons World War 3 will be fought with, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and bones" Albert Einstien Ever seen Stanley Kubricks 2001? Imagine what would have happened had the first 'ape' scene being at the end of the movie?
Greed No matter how you count it. * The Earth will not die; rather, our lust for profit and resource might render her unliveable for humans. * Life has a price: ask an AIDS patient what the monthly cash cost is. * Life has a price: Africa? Hey, we've got starving children in Appalachia. Too remote? I live in Seattle, and we've got starving children here. * What is warfare, but greed for territorial, economic, or moral dominion? * Compassion is too expensive; consider the above, and also please consider the addict that must confess to felonies before receiving treatment; consider that athletes are worth more money than schoolteachers in the United States. Perhaps this sounds like my usual soapbox, but I can guarantee you that if it's a plague, the cure will be too expensive; if it's a nuclear war, it will be over oil or water, and the price thereof; if it's a comet, well, Congress will have cut the inbound-defense systems' budget as wasteful. Perhaps it's not greed. Perhaps it's stupidity. But I actually have a good deal of hope that the human race will figure out how to stage a massive warfare effort that involves no weapons. I can imagine a billion people in the streets singing, "Bomb us if you dare," and who could, but the greediest and stupidest? But at some point, I really do think we can stop. The trick is in not looking forward to the end of the world, the next war, and so forth. But then again, I live in a country that sends our sons and daughters to battle every time we build a new piece of neato kill-hardware. Gotta start at home, a'fore I can change the world. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Perhaps I agree with the esteemed Mr Waters, that this species will amuse itself to death. thanx, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think this thread needs to be renamed ".......people will end...". Again, the earth needs us not. When we are gone thigs will start over.
Checking out One likely scenario is wars for resources. Within our lifetimes could see the start of platinum exhaustion in mining. One of the largest sources of platinum comes from Canada where they mine from an old asteroid impact site. The exact figure of percentage of the world’s resources that come from here escapes me but it is sizeable. And it won’t last much longer. And there are others. Oil, a nonrenewable resource, is being depleted at a record pace. We have reached the point that the easy stuff is gone and have to search farther and farther from home to find it. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Outer Continental Shelf is producing less and less gas and oil. Consider that as within 300-foot depth range to shore. Those new finds are of smaller and smaller reservoirs. Now the big oil is in the depths closer to the center of the Gulf. 1200 feet and better. Already deals are made with the third world countries to drill and explore their resources as it is cheaper than finding what we have, which is so much more difficult to get to. The oil will last though our lifetimes but maybe not our children’s. There are many more examples that could be explored but I’m sure you get the drift Another is third world countries with a beef. They’re not big enough to go toe to toe with the first rate nations in a war. So they do as they can. Chemical agents have been with is as a weapon since the First World War. Mustard gas and Phosgene gas was used to cripple the enemy. Though it was a chancy weapon as likely to get the attacker as it was the defender, depending on the whimsy of the wind. Witness the use of Sarin gas in Japan by one of the out there religions. With a few of their own people and knowledge gained, they purchased the necessary stuff to attack a subway full of people. This is the third world’s atom bomb. That and biowarfare. For the damage done these weapons don’t cost that much and are within the range of third world countries. Couple with this that biowarfare recognizes no boundry. Once lose the genie dosn't go back into the bottle. News on global warming is thought to be better than originally suspected. It was discovered that one of the key elements that were used for the computer models was over estimated giving warmer than normal temps for results. The polar caps are not going to melt and drown us in the next decade or the one after. Those who wrote the models were after proving the world was warming up not the reverse or even giving the reasonable doubt that it might even be just normal. There is no need in worrying about it as the world is what it is. Species disappear from the face of the earth every day and have so for all it's history. Just like staying at the hotel, you get a room, you stay, but there is no guarantee tomarrow you'll have that room. You just may have to check out.
Still around Well there's a slim few that are still around though maybe not exacty how you might think. After all the ice man was found!
hhhhhhhmmmmmmmm well ive been doing a little reading on the net and come to a conclusion on the idea of continuation of the human species. ive heard of the underground nuke drilling machines and they sound like they can "do the job". but... the rich and the politically few elite wont wont every one down there! so they have a vested interest in killing off as many as possible. hey tiassa... i read one theory, that aids was manufactured as a population control device...? who knows? groove on Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I was speaking of the human group in general. It's an easy thing own a gun, and it's another thing to point it at your head and pull the trigger. We have the ability to blow ourselves out of existance, but I think survival instinct keeps us from that end. If we go out, it will be a blow from our blind side, something we never anticipated. Left to our own devices, we will survive.
I realise you were speaking of humanity as a whole, but humanity is composed of individuals. In order for the instinct of which you spoke to have an effect, it would have to have that effect on individuals. I'm not saying humanity has no instinct for self-preservation; just that it's easily overcome. The reason armies demand such slavish devotion to following orders is that those men and women will be asked to perform tasks that go not just against their own best interests, but that of society and/or humanity. If there's a nuclear war, it'll be started by individuals; each giving the order to a subordinate until the individual whose job it is to press the button is reached. Then, boom. If any one of those individual fails to perform his duty, that individual will be replaced. Then, boom.
"Fight The Future" Words to the wise from a "Proclaimed" Time Traveler from the Year 2036......... "A world war in 2015 killed nearly three billion people. The people that survived grew closer together. Life is centered around the family and then the community. I can not imagine living even a few hundred miles away from my parents. There is no large industrial complex creating masses of useless food and recreational items. Food and livestock is grown and sold locally. People spend much more time reading and talking together face to face. Religion is taken seriously and everyone can multiple and divide in the heads." (To Continue,)... Please Goto/Gosub:> http://www.p3n.org/pn120100.shtml
Time, i looked at your link. My crystal ball says that site is all wrong. Our future is above the clouds, waiting for exploitation. Computers, biotech, and next...space. <img src = "http://www.sciforums.com/images/icons/icon10.gif">
rde, For the larger part, people can understand the consequences of death. Even the soldier in battle does not desire to be in harm's way. Yes, people can be coerced into sacrificing their own lives, but only when they are blind to the horrors of war, or presented with the possibility of a living hell. When you talk of a war which offers no possibility of winning, most people would conclude that it is an illogical choice. Truly, our fate is held in the hands of our leaders. Let us hope that none are so irrational as to allow such a war to start or come to such a conclussion. Hitler would serve a good example for your argument because he brought Germany to total ruin rather than surrender. Such is the fate of those who live under and serve a dictatorship. In short, I have faith in our nature as survivalist. Most of us, including our leaders, would choose life if given an option.
Re: "Fight The Future" Well, as long as people can divide in the heads... Still, thanks for the link; I've taken the opportunity to look around the Paranormal News Network. I try not to sneer, but when someone finds another face on mars and says "We believe this compelling evidence proves Mars was once inhabited by an intelligent civilisation." I not just sneer, I snigger heartily and attract bemused stares from my co-workers. Have a laugh: go to http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_287053.html
We will never die!!! Not to be harsh on the site, but the paranormal news network is worth nothing more than a laugh. Especially the time traveler whose picture of the future is funny and timeline defiantly wrong. But anyway I can't see the human race ending anytime soon and probably not anytime at all. A prospect soon to be made real. There are a few reasons why we will not destroy ourselves. First is the inherent goodness in all people. You might not see it but if you think about it, you will see it. I could build a bomb and kill a random targeted audience quite easily. Killing thousands would not be much of a problem and the construction of a bomb is not that difficult. Look at what the Unabomber managed to accomplish. We all have a general goodness in us that stops us from going out and blowing people to smithereens. Nuclear war is also not likely, as nobody is dumb enough to launch one. The only countries that would dare launch a nuke are third world countries with poor delivery systems and only one bomb. The country would be destroyed as a result and life will continue. Biological warfare is also unlikely due to the fact that only an advanced nation would have the resources to produce a potent killer. Even if nuclear fallout were to happen there would still be people left, just not many of them. Humans are also on the brink of colonizing space. Once we spread past our planet there will be no weapon strong enough to destroy us all. There will always be a single outpost that will survive. Humans will be around for a long time to come.
