Poll: The extinction of man

[CaptnKirk]

Stellar Evolution - Our Sun will destroy us.

Given - It is a fact that stars in the class of our sun upon reaching a certain level of Hydrogen consumed will progress into Carbon Synthesis.
This is know as "The Main-Sequence"
At that time the solar envelope will expand outward until the gasseous surface of the sun will lie outside the orbit of all the inner planets,
all the way out to Mars and the fringes of the asteroid belt.

Unless you want to add: "George Bush"

 

[Spac3d]

Originally posted by: Atlantean
The evolution of another better species will cause the extinction of man... that or aliens.

Now call me crazy, but isn't the only reason we evolved so well to become dominant species is because we have usable thumbs? Just curious.

Of course, Terminators could come and rule the world and destroy humans

 

[Anubis]

i voted Environmental Catastrophe. i say an asteroid or something similar will wipe us all out

 

[BooGiMaN]

if movies have taught us anything its that robots will kill us off...i vote for cockroaches being the only species that makes it until our sun explodes

 

[jaeger66]

Anyone know how long humans have been around? I was never into anthropology.

 

[Wag]

Now call me crazy, but isn't the only reason we evolved so well to become dominant species is because we have usable thumbs? Just curious

Not so. We do have opposable thumbs, but so do apes and other animals like racoons,etc.

Speech and our adaptability is one of the reasons we have become "dominant". But if I was an alien looking at Earth species, there are even more resilliant species than Humans- Cockaroaches for one, and Sharks too.

 

[yoda291]

hrm, maybe a killer plague will sweep across the globe and our reaction will be "Let's see how the plague likes to deal with 100 megatons of NUCLEAR POWAR!!!" ... would it be nuclear holocaust or disease that killed us?

 

[Spac3d]

Originally posted by: Wag

Now call me crazy, but isn't the only reason we evolved so well to become dominant species is because we have usable thumbs? Just curious

Not so. We do have opposable thumbs, but so do apes and other animals like racoons,etc.

Speech and our adaptability is one of the reasons we have become "dominant". But if I was an alien looking at Earth species, there are even more resilliant species than Humans- Cockaroaches for one, and Sharks too.

Ah okay, thanks for the insight

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: yoda291
hrm, maybe a killer plague will sweep across the globe and our reaction will be "Let's see how the plague likes to deal with 100 megatons of NUCLEAR POWAR!!!" ... would it be nuclear holocaust or disease that killed us?

that makes absolutely no sense

 

[Daxxax]

Originally posted by: konichiwa

Originally posted by: Daxxax
There isn't a choice for nothing happening. I'm not saying a few of those things might not happen but I think the human race is pretty damn resilient and will find a way to live through just about anything.

Riiight. Over 99% of the species that have EVER LIVED are extinct. You think we are some great exception?

Um yeah, actually I do think we are a exception. We tend to be a little smarter. (well, at least some of us are.)

 

[everman]

Assuming no interplanetary travel....I'd say something which massively impacts the atmosphere on a global scale resulting in nuclear winter type conditions. That would include massive nuclear war, and massive amounts of volcanic eruptions and possibly an asteroid.

 

[Looney]

Riiight. Over 99% of the species that have EVER LIVED are extinct. You think we are some great exception?

We're INTELLIGENT. Unlike every other creature that needs to adapt to their environment to survive, we adapt the environment to suit our needs.

Plague won't wipe us out. There hasn't been a plague with 100% kill rate yet... and even if it were, there would still be pockets of people that survive.

Nuclear holocaust would be bad, and cause a nuclear winter, but that'll be survivable by small pockets of people. See the movie Threads. It'll be hard, but i'm sure a small percentage of humans would survive.

Only thing that can completely wipe us out would be an asteroid impact imo.

 

[pcman2002b]

I see two possibilities.

Either we are really living in the Matrix and the movie was just created so we wouldn't believe it, and we will go on until the robots wear out and can't find any more resources to fix themselves.

OR

Atleast one human will exist on this planet, until the sun dies and bakes him (or her) to the surface of the Earth. While the other humans who were smart enough to hop
on the spaceship are on another planet not unlike our own in a sort of Garden of Eden part 2.

 

[Krakerjak]

What does it matter anyways...we're all gonna die soon enough.

vote for environmental catastrophe imo.

 

[xirtam]

"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to 0."

I don't think it'll be any one thing.

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: yoda291
hrm, maybe a killer plague will sweep across the globe and our reaction will be "Let's see how the plague likes to deal with 100 megatons of NUCLEAR POWAR!!!" ... would it be nuclear holocaust or disease that killed us?

that makes absolutely no sense

Right, like people always make sense.

 

[SportSC4]

I picked other.
Sorry, i'm not good at explaining things so as an example, their is a stargate episode where an human alien species offers a way for humanity to double their lives. Of course, many people take advantage of this. Unknown to humanity, these enhancements make the current generation of people infertile and unable to reproduce. By the time this is found out, it's too late.

We might eventually genetically modify ourselves to ward off diseases 10x better, but what if 300 years from now we have a supervirus that our bodies would have been able to fight off but the enhancements made have rid ourselves of a specific antibody or the processing of an amino acid in a specific sequence. I don't think we take the possible consequence seriously enough. The technology isn't there (yet, IMO).

 

[Swanny]

I think some sort of environment thing will bring us down. We'll do something really stupid and realize too late that it can't be fixed. But hopefully by then we will be travelling in space and at least avoid total extinction.

 

[Howard]

I can safely say I have no clue. But I do know that if we live long enough and still haven't achieved interstellar travel, we'll die with the sun.

 

[Parrotheader]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: Yield
I vote plague.. diseases and infections are conforming around our medicine and pretty soon we won't be able to cure some of them, in turn leading to MANY deaths...

but not unless Nuclear Holocaust happens first!!

With plagues you generally have someone that shows and immunity or at least a lesser reaction.

amish

That's what I was thinking. I have no doubts a plague could knock out 99+% of humanity, but from what little I've read there supposedly will always be people that the disease does not impact be it from isolation or that they were simply not as affected by it.

An asteroid is the most interesting possibility. That's one thing we're currently VERY VERY vulnerable to although the chances are obviously rather slim for a world changing event anytime in the immediate future. With enough time (maybe another 50+ years or so) we'll hopefully have enough technological advancement to have some way to effectively monitor and actively prevent any devastation on that front.

I voted for other, but I honestly don't know of any specific ones which stand out (other than the Sun eventually expanding and engulfing the inner planets, but that's WAAAAAAAAAY down the line.) Where's my alien invasion option??

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

woman will kill man

 

[HombrePequeno]

Originally posted by: jaeger66
One day, man will no longer walk the earth. Why? Assume that when the big event happens we will not have mastered interplanetary travel.

Haven't we already sort of mastered interplanetary travel? I mean we did go to the moon and all. If we ever do go extinct it will probably be by an asteroid or a large volcanic eruption.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Haven't we already sort of mastered interplanetary travel? I mean we did go to the moon and all. If we ever do go extinct it will probably be by an asteroid or a large volcanic eruption.

The moon isn't a planet, and 3 guys in a capsule isn't going to save the species.

 

[HombrePequeno]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Haven't we already sort of mastered interplanetary travel? I mean we did go to the moon and all. If we ever do go extinct it will probably be by an asteroid or a large volcanic eruption.

The moon isn't a planet, and 3 guys in a capsule isn't going to save the species.

Still it's not that hard (for the government) to "master" interplanetary travel. It's not like we'd have to start from scratch. It might take a few billion but hey, it's the whole damn species we're talking about.

 

[PraetorianGuards]

Definitely something akin to what was going to happen in "Armageddon". Except we won't be able to make a speeding asteroid split in half lol.