NogginBoink
Diamond Member
Humans will continue to poison the planet until it becomes incapable of sustaining life.
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Poll: If earth as we know it is destroyed, how do you think it will ultimately happen?
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GoodRevrnd
Diamond Member
Jesus, I was the only one that voted for super volcano?
EDIT: Looks like Brutuskend saw that one. So only one other person. Anyway, I say supervolcanoes then big rock, and you can throw in WMD as a wildcard.
EDIT: Looks like Brutuskend saw that one. So only one other person. Anyway, I say supervolcanoes then big rock, and you can throw in WMD as a wildcard.
I'm going to nitpick a little, too. There's a difference between destroying a planet, and wiping out all current life on this miserable rock. The former can only really happen with something like a supernova, and I can't quite recall if our sun is one of the types capalble of that. The latter, though, is easier than one would expect.
I voted for Nuclear Apocalypse. I'm extremely cynical in regards to humanity. At least we got past the old Cold War and the idea of the USSR blowing human civilization off the face of the planet. Now we just have to worry about states that want it for its pure destructive power, copying steps discovered by previous nuclear powers. Those are the states that are going to light off the third -- and probably a whole lot more -- offensive nuclear weapon in human history. While the conflict will not likely provoke the world blanketing storm of nuclear fire like the Cold War was feared to provoke, even a moderate conflict is likely to play hell with atmospheric particulate matter, fallout, and radioactive contamination. While more modern countries have relatively clean nukes, it's not them we have to worry about slinging them around. Actually, the bombs aren't the worst part. Anyone recall Chernobyl? Imagine the utter hell a deliberate, full scale meltdown would cause for the surroundng countries.
A close second was Global incurable virus/disease, but only if tied to Scientific experiment goes awry. Again, I figure we'll ah heck over our whole race with a bit of genetic tinkering that mutates/escapes/is deliberately set free. That's a bit more likely, but not as dramatic as pillars of nuclear fire and the ultra rapid degeration of human civilization that would cause.
The Space Rock is third. Makes for good movies, and there might be one lurking around somehwere in the solar system, but I doubt it'll hit us before we do ourselves in.
Space Aliens... I wish. There is NO reason for invasion. Everything that can be found on Earth can be found easier and in greater quantities in the asteroid belt and other planets. (Okay, okay, War of the Worlds. You want to be the appitizer or the entree?) It'd be much simpler for a race that has managed to cross the starts to do their work out there, undisturbed, than bother with us. Unless they bomb us from orbit with pieces of said asteroid belt, a la Babylon 5.
Machines becoming self aware and doing us in... nah. Need a WAY more integrated world than what we have now, and we have enough stories of warning (Terminator; Matrix; I, Robot [Three Laws of Robotics]; etc) to most likely work around potential flaws in the design. Besides, the machines would have to have a full infrastructure like in the Matrix/Animatrix in order to facilitate a full take over. That was one flaw I never really got over in the Terminator movies.
Super volcanons... nah. Interesting, but I believe the planet is stable enough not to rip itself ashunder like that.
The sun dying is the only 100% certainity. It'll take a few billion years (I've heard another 4 as one estimate) until it's well on its way to degeneration, but it will happen. And it'll likely take this planet with it. We'll be long gone, of course. Either we'll all be long dead (my money) or we'll have moved away to somewhere else.
-- Jack
There's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars.
-- Captain Sinclair, Babylon 5
I voted for Nuclear Apocalypse. I'm extremely cynical in regards to humanity. At least we got past the old Cold War and the idea of the USSR blowing human civilization off the face of the planet. Now we just have to worry about states that want it for its pure destructive power, copying steps discovered by previous nuclear powers. Those are the states that are going to light off the third -- and probably a whole lot more -- offensive nuclear weapon in human history. While the conflict will not likely provoke the world blanketing storm of nuclear fire like the Cold War was feared to provoke, even a moderate conflict is likely to play hell with atmospheric particulate matter, fallout, and radioactive contamination. While more modern countries have relatively clean nukes, it's not them we have to worry about slinging them around. Actually, the bombs aren't the worst part. Anyone recall Chernobyl? Imagine the utter hell a deliberate, full scale meltdown would cause for the surroundng countries.
A close second was Global incurable virus/disease, but only if tied to Scientific experiment goes awry. Again, I figure we'll ah heck over our whole race with a bit of genetic tinkering that mutates/escapes/is deliberately set free. That's a bit more likely, but not as dramatic as pillars of nuclear fire and the ultra rapid degeration of human civilization that would cause.
The Space Rock is third. Makes for good movies, and there might be one lurking around somehwere in the solar system, but I doubt it'll hit us before we do ourselves in.
Space Aliens... I wish. There is NO reason for invasion. Everything that can be found on Earth can be found easier and in greater quantities in the asteroid belt and other planets. (Okay, okay, War of the Worlds. You want to be the appitizer or the entree?) It'd be much simpler for a race that has managed to cross the starts to do their work out there, undisturbed, than bother with us. Unless they bomb us from orbit with pieces of said asteroid belt, a la Babylon 5.
Machines becoming self aware and doing us in... nah. Need a WAY more integrated world than what we have now, and we have enough stories of warning (Terminator; Matrix; I, Robot [Three Laws of Robotics]; etc) to most likely work around potential flaws in the design. Besides, the machines would have to have a full infrastructure like in the Matrix/Animatrix in order to facilitate a full take over. That was one flaw I never really got over in the Terminator movies.
Super volcanons... nah. Interesting, but I believe the planet is stable enough not to rip itself ashunder like that.
The sun dying is the only 100% certainity. It'll take a few billion years (I've heard another 4 as one estimate) until it's well on its way to degeneration, but it will happen. And it'll likely take this planet with it. We'll be long gone, of course. Either we'll all be long dead (my money) or we'll have moved away to somewhere else.
-- Jack
There's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars.
-- Captain Sinclair, Babylon 5
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