I'm not sure how I would react if, for instance, it was known beyond a shadow of a doubt that a giant asteroid was going to obliterate civilization in a month. Society would break down once reality set in. The survival instinct would cause many to prepare for doomsday by any means necessary such as stockpiling food, weapons, gasoline, etc. even if it meant killing, stealing or threatening others. I think the degeneration of order coupled with eventual starvation as the Earth experienced the same phenomenon known as Nuclear Winter would be a worse fate than dying immediately.
Gibsons
Lifer
- Aug 14, 2001
- 12,530
- 35
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given that we really don't have any right now, nor are we building any, that doesn't do much good (a nuclear submarine comes close, but they run out of food. Biosphere and similar requires solar power which you can't depend on).
Assuming we attempt to build some, what's your power source that's going to provide food and energy for say, a 10,000 year ice age that (in theory) could follow the teraton-level explosion of a large meteor impact?
Not likely, imo. Besides, once you've left Earth... where do you go?
Seriously how do you figure that?? A relativley "whimpy" tsunami just killed about 20,000 and that is nothing compared to the scale of disasters rh71 is referring to. If that super volcano in Yellowstone blows how do your propose we stop it? If an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth in 20 years do you think we can destroy it given our modern pace of technology?
the amount of people saved would be realtively small, but the human race wouldn't be wiped out. the power source would depend a lot on the nature of the disaster.
because humans are like cockroaches. you can kill a lot, but killing all is damn near impossible.
Originally posted by: Hammer
because humans are like cockroaches. you can kill a lot, but killing all is damn near impossible.
You may have a valid point to a degree but I am not sure to what scale of a disaster small bands could eek out some sort of survival.
Originally posted by: PanzerIV
Originally posted by: Hammer
because humans are like cockroaches. you can kill a lot, but killing all is damn near impossible.
You may have a valid point to a degree but I am not sure to what scale of a disaster small bands could eek out some sort of survival.
a big part will be how much advance warning is had of the disaster. if its an asteroid, we might have as much a decade to prepare.
If something happens, I'll do the same thing everybody else will do.. do anything I can to survive.
But it would have to be something really, really big to actually destroy our society.... I don't think earthquakes and floods will do it.. It would have to be something crazy, like rapid climate change...
I'd almost be willing to bet that the United States goes to hell in a handbasket(at least in its current form) long before we are ever completely decimated by a natural disaster.
But it would have to be something really, really big to actually destroy our society.... I don't think earthquakes and floods will do it.. It would have to be something crazy, like rapid climate change...
I'd almost be willing to bet that the United States goes to hell in a handbasket(at least in its current form) long before we are ever completely decimated by a natural disaster.
Yeah, she isn't due to burn out anytime soon...
It's so sad that our lifetimes are so short...
If it weren't for our atmosphere and weather, our planet would be just as pock-marked as the moon. That's a pretty scary thought...
We're in the middle of a huge minefield we call the universe.. and the mines move, but we have to stay realitivly still. :Q
Man, what a depressing thought. There could be an absolutely massive meteor out there, heading straight for us.. but still 500 years away. Yeah, that's a long time.. but it would still suck ass to know that humanity and everything on the planet only has 500 years to live.
If we are ever threatened with a meteor, I do hope we'll have plenty of time to prepare.. we should.
We can?
We tried.. It didn't work out..
It is not nearly as easy as you think. The degree of complexity seen in the natural world, particularly in the microorganism area, is simply astounding.
Any aliens that have the inclination towards genocide would have wiped themselves out long before they acheived intergalactic space travel . . .
Gibsons
Lifer
- Aug 14, 2001
- 12,530
- 35
- 91
K1052:
Doesn't exist.
There are no functional fusion power plants now or in the near future, much less any that we could expect to last for thousands of years, or carry to outer space or build on some other planet. And even if you do build one, it's not going to last forever; you'll have pipes that will need replacing at a minimum of every hundred years or so, with the expertise manufacture and implement them correctly. Then there's the containment problem (fusion produces lots of neutrons, that's a serious issue). Then having nothing go wrong with ~400 generations of humans.
Mars isn't very compatible with human life. You'll need very very very large rockets that don't exist and will take a very long time to design and build.
Hammer:
there's a certain minimum size you'll need to maintain genetic diversity (inbreeding is bad). And you'll need enough to run the machines. And grow the food, raise the babies and educate them on how to maintain that power plant.
How about a meteor, some 100 miles in diameter? Or 1,000.
Doesn't exist.
There are no functional fusion power plants now or in the near future, much less any that we could expect to last for thousands of years, or carry to outer space or build on some other planet. And even if you do build one, it's not going to last forever; you'll have pipes that will need replacing at a minimum of every hundred years or so, with the expertise manufacture and implement them correctly. Then there's the containment problem (fusion produces lots of neutrons, that's a serious issue). Then having nothing go wrong with ~400 generations of humans.
Mars isn't very compatible with human life. You'll need very very very large rockets that don't exist and will take a very long time to design and build.
Hammer:
there's a certain minimum size you'll need to maintain genetic diversity (inbreeding is bad). And you'll need enough to run the machines. And grow the food, raise the babies and educate them on how to maintain that power plant.
How about a meteor, some 100 miles in diameter? Or 1,000.
for genetic diversity, i remember reading somewhere you could use as little as 100 families and still maintain it.
for the power in your scenario, wind power maybe.
if we don't kill ourselves (and the fact that we have survived this long with superweapons is indication that we should survive a lot longer), then I think humans will cease to exist when we evolve (or even change ourselves) into a new species. Oh and if we don't find away to move out of our solar system in the next 5 billion years, the sun is going to die, unles we find someway to renew its life, which with 5 billion years to work with could easily be accomplished given what we've done in the last hundred...
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