How will the world end!

On July 07 2009 16:23 DownMaxX wrote:
I don't know about the world itself, but I think the next time humanity will be on the brink of extinction will be from a viral pandemic.

On July 07 2009 16:43 FragKrag wrote:
We will perish when all of the stars in the universe dim/supernova and we can't find a good source of energy!!

On July 07 2009 16:41 Aegraen wrote:


We have far too great numbers for this to ever be the cause of our extinction. Even if just 1% of the population were immune, that is still at this time: 75 Million people, immune, let alone those that survived that weren't immune.

There has never, ever, been in the history of mankind a virus that was 99% lethal. Even the bubonic plague in the best of conditions was on the order of 50% lethal.

On July 07 2009 16:47 HuskyTheHusky wrote:


This.

Our extinction will be man-made. We are too smart to be wiped out by virtually anything else. The only natural disaster I can see that would cause human extinction is a giant meteor. But honestly I think we'd have the brainpower around the world to find ways of stopping it. If nothing else we'd throw every single space-capable rocket at it and see what happens.

On July 07 2009 16:49 blue_arrow wrote:


Your ideas of disasters are so small-scaled

On July 07 2009 16:51 HuskyTheHusky wrote:


Well I guess this is a thread having to do with 2012 so that's when all unreasonable hell breaks loose. In that case we're probably all going to get ran over by some superior race and turned into slaves D:

On July 07 2009 16:51 HuskyTheHusky wrote:


Well I guess this is a thread having to do with 2012 so that's when all unreasonable hell breaks loose. In that case we're probably all going to get ran over by some superior race and turned into slaves D:

On July 07 2009 17:04 benjammin wrote:
some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.

On July 07 2009 17:09 Aegraen wrote:


Lol, I seem to recall the UED kicking ass. Anyways, we're more likely to be wiped out by a super volcano (Ala, Yellowstone), than a comet or asteroid. No stopping the volcano, and we can arguably, stop an asteroid right now. A comet? Doubtful, but not out of the realm of possibility.

If we can manage to get past that, the only thing that could wipe us out is either another sentient species bent on our destruction, or the enivatable death of the universe. (Though this is all within the realm of our limited knowledge, who knows what magnificent discoveries can be made in billions of years).

On July 07 2009 17:46 blue_arrow wrote:


what about extremely close supernovae, black holes/almost-any-massive-bodies passing through our solar system, or any other large-scale cosmic events that occur nearby?

also, asteroids and other minor bodies don't have to collide directly with the earth to screw us over. The asteroids could modify the orbits of other planets, which in turn destabilize our own orbit, thus possibly throwing our planet out of the extremely narrow habitable zone that we are currently residing in. The planets with modified orbits could potentially collide with Earth as well; a planetary collision between us and any planet or dwarf planet within the solar system would instantaneously wipe out all life on earth.

Even without interference, the orbits in our solar system aint that stable to begin with.
The sun's gonna expand, but a billion or two years before that it's gonna become too hot anyways for life as we know it to exist on Earth.
Gamma ray bursts aimed toward the earth happen once every billion years or so.

Somethings going to give and all life is gonna get removed from the Earth sooner or later.

All of these scenarios are enough to wipe out life on earth, don't even talk about wiping out a measly species thats only been in existence for a blink of an eye in the context of the cosmic timescale.

Also, this is why we gotta get our asses movin into space. Time is ticking for life on this fragile little world. =p

On July 07 2009 18:42 Garnet wrote:
Not the world but whichever country get nuked by N.Korea will probably cease to exist.

On July 07 2009 16:15 sh02hp0869 wrote:
Zergs invasion.

On July 07 2009 16:41 Aegraen wrote:


We have far too great numbers for this to ever be the cause of our extinction. Even if just 1% of the population were immune, that is still at this time: 75 Million people, immune, let alone those that survived that weren't immune.

There has never, ever, been in the history of mankind a virus that was 99% lethal. Even the bubonic plague in the best of conditions was on the order of 50% lethal.

On July 07 2009 19:02 imperator-xy wrote:
i think the maya calendar just ends at this date and this is why everyone thinks the world will end.
but i think it said something like the gods will come back to earth. maybe this means that some aliens will come back. some guys also think that our awareness will expand massively, as the middle of the milky way, the sun and the earth are on one line or something, and there will be x-ray-like things that change our minds.
then we know better about why we are living and that we are just a part of 'it'. also many people will go crazy because they can't dominate their expanded awareness.

when i'm thinking about this, this sounds like total rubbish. but who knows, it's funny to think about what could happen on 21st december 2012

On July 07 2009 16:36 Aegraen wrote:
The world will end when the Sun goes Red Giant. By that time however, man will be populated throughout the Universe.

Man and life, is ill-fated we are destined to perish when the universe itself fades into the abyssmal black nothingness.

As for 2012, rubbish

On July 07 2009 18:38 Foucault wrote:


I love that video so much lol

On July 08 2009 02:48 Xenixx wrote:
There was something about a galactic light burst (excuse me its been a while) when stars explode or galaxies collapse blah blah blah i don't know the specifics but these things happen often and it would only take 1 of these to hit earth and were fucked, i like to think that would be the coolest way to go. it would just be instantaneous, boom, world gone, no chance, no idea it was even coming

A gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way, if close enough to Earth and beamed towards it, could have significant effects on the biosphere. The absorption of radiation in the atmosphere would cause photodissociation of nitrogen, generating nitric oxide that would act as a catalyst to destroy ozone.[73] According to a 2004 study, a GRB at a distance of about a kiloparsec could destroy up to half of Earth's ozone layer; the direct UV irradiation from the burst combined with additional solar UV radiation passing through the diminished ozone layer could then have potentially significant impacts on the food chain and potentially trigger a mass extinction.[2][74] The authors estimate that one such burst is expected per billion years, and hypothesize that the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event could have been the result of such a burst.

On July 08 2009 03:49 Kuja900 wrote:
Xenixx I think your thinking of a gamma ray burst.

On July 08 2009 03:08 sith wrote:


I'm pretty sure you're thinking of a gamma ray burst, which if it happened and somehow was pointed at Earth (extremely unlikely occurrence), then basically everything on the planet would get nuked with high energy radiation.

From wikipedia on Gamma-ray bursts

On July 08 2009 00:31 Zholistic wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

From Apocalypse Now ^^

On July 08 2009 04:20 matamata wrote:
collapsing magnetic field of a nearby magnetar. Happens every 100million years or so, and we are overdue O_O

On July 08 2009 04:16 OreoBoi wrote:
The world will end the day that Blizzard cancels WoW, Battle.net/Battle.net2 for SC2 and Diablo 3 goes down and Valve is gone so steam died too.

On July 07 2009 19:02 imperator-xy wrote:
i think the maya calendar just ends at this date

On July 07 2009 16:14 Sad[Panda] wrote:
Take a step up and make your own end of the world theory

On July 08 2009 05:07 sushiman wrote:
Yellow winning a starleague final.

On July 08 2009 05:26 MamiyaOtaru wrote:

Are you really wondering about the end of the world, or just the end of mankind? The world isn't going anywhere until the Sun expands and swallows it. Mankind? Different story.

I used to worry about Grey Goo as an inevitability given advancing technology, but we'll never get that far before the oil crash. That isn't even an end of mankind scenario, though it's a possible end of industrial civilization scenario. We're never going to the stars unfortunately. Probably not even back to the moon. Not enough energy.

If we start now we might be able to switch our energy infrastructure over to something not fossil fuel based before said fossil fuel becomes scarce enough to make that an impossibility from an energy standpoint. Perhaps cars running on hydrogen produced at fusion plants (wishful thinking)

That's still only a partial solution though. All that food we produce with fossil fuel based fertilizers and pesticides, protected by fossil fuel based plastics is going to dry up even if we can move the tractors and semis involved in its production and transportation over to hydrogen.

Basically, we have a surplus of energy right now due to all the fossil fuels left over from the planet's past. As it becomes more scarce, it takes more energy to extract it. Eventually, way down the road, it will not be possible to get more energy out of it than is spent extracting it. We need to be switching to something else while there is still a surplus so we have the energy to do so, as switching will require a massive energy investment.

This requires that a new source of energy is found (there is currently no source of energy capable of providing as much as is used now) and that we have a way to disseminate it to where it is needed. So that source needs to be discovered and the infrastructure created before we run out of energy with which to do it from our current sources.

More immediately, oil isn't going to run out any time soon, but all it needs is to become scarcer. Production has peaked, and demand continues to rise as places like China jump on the energy hog bandwagon (currently driven by us). The effect can be seen in the price of gas since 2000 despite the recent dip in prices thanks to a general recession. That dip was an anomaly. It will rise again, and continue to do so. As everything else is based off of it, everything else (critically: food) will as well. The effects of that could be seen in the discontent that manifested itself recently in Saudi Arabia. Rich from their oil exports, they were still squeezed by the rising price of the food they have to import. Less rich areas will be hit all the harder.

This isn't the end of the world, or even mankind, but it will mark the end of leisure and technology for all but a select few. I really hope Starcraft 2 comes out before then, and that we have a few more lasting recessions to keep production and demand down for a little longer. But that's hardly a solution either. Economists will tell you the market will adjust to the higher prices and demand will drop (happened last year) but there is a finite amount of resources, and the best we can hope for is continuing, deepening recessions keeping demand from gobbling up what's left too fast. We're stuck between spiraling inflation and recession with no way out. There's my scenario.

On July 07 2009 17:12 VIB wrote:
Savior: "I will destroy everyone in 2012.. This time, I MEAN IT!"

On July 08 2009 06:28 Torenhire wrote:


That would be an amazing way to end the world.

On July 08 2009 05:37 travis wrote:
solar energy from satellites

solar energy from grids on the ground

geothermal energy

tidal energy or hydro

wind energy

or even crazy shit like antimatter and cold fusion

On July 08 2009 05:48 Caller wrote:
That's just it though. In response to a decreasing supply of oil, prices will rise

and soon it will also be more economical to adapt to other sources of energy.

What about a new source of energy?

What about direct transformation of matter into energy?

On July 08 2009 07:15 MamiyaOtaru wrote:
Edit: so my theory is being dogpiled. Let's do that to all the other ones too, and then we can feel perfectly safe and secure for 2012 whoo!

If this is al tl;dr, skip the quotes part and check the part after "this is all besides the point".


Honestly don't know a lot about this. Sounds pie in the sky though. Takes a lot of energy to get satellites up.

Solar cells and the circuitry to support them take a lot of energy to make and are hugely ineffecient. There's room for improvement here.

This is only remotely feasible in places like Iceland. I don't mean that you can't get energy, but it's capable of a negligable percentage of what we get now.

Tidal energy is capable of supplying approximately 7 percent of the US current total usage link, and effects are unknown. Taking energy out of waves will affect shoreline dynamics, in the same way putting up enough wind farms to supply our energy would alter the weather link . Hydro is basically maxed out here. Not a lot of places are going to accommodate massive new dams.

see above.

That would have to be developed first, and would have to produce more energy than it takes to get it going. Might as bank on aliens giving some wonder tech. If it happens, great. Still, see below.


Right, I addressed that. Continually rising prices for food is something mankind, particularly the poorer portions, will be hard pressed to deal with. There have been huge problems with it already, and if your answer is that having even bigger food supply problems will be what keep us from using all the oil, well shit.

They will become more economical than oil, but the question is if they will become economical enough. Will you be able to get more energy out than you put in? And will it be anywhere close to what we are currently getting from oil? There really isn't anything yet even theoretically capable of that, except for coal which brings its own problems.

Just a sec, let me conjure one up

Sounds like fission and fusion. Fusion is not yet feasible, fission is, but we'd have to see a lot more of it. Uranium is also a finite resource.

**but all of this is beside the point**

Even if all of these sources combined were capable of supplying our energy needs, Crops are not treated with solar/hydro/geothermal pesticides and fertilizers. Cars, trucks, tractors, boats, do not run off of solar or wind or hydro power. The infrastructure would have to be overhauled, reconstructed, using the existing infrastructure while it is still functional. This turnover is not happening yet and at some point it will be too late.

Without planning ahead and serious government stiff-arming, it won't make economic sense to invest in new infrastructure until it is more economical than the old. But that is precisely when the new infrastructure will be needed. Lag for necessary research and widespread implementation will be cutting things very very close. And like I've alluded to, we aren't anywhere near that point yet, and already we are living between higher prices for everything and depression. How's it going to be then during the scramble to retrofit our entire infrastructure?

In the end though, I think people are seriously overestimating the energy density in alternative sources, which comes nowhere near rivaling the energy density of coal. For example to provide as much energy as we now use, solar panels would need to cover 220,000 square kilometers. They currently cover 10 square kilometers link. And if we wait until that is more economical, the energy to build such an array (and create tractors and cars that can use what they produce) will come from where? The same applies to any other mentioned energy source.

People have their heads in the sand. Me too; I'm not doing fuck-all about this because there is nothing I can do.

To reiterate: look at the price of food recently, and what temporarily fixed it: a depression. Great choice, a real Scylla and Charybdis that. And that is with us nowhere near alternative energy sources being more economical than oil. As we approach that point and scramble to switch over, try and extrapolate how things will be then.

Any solution will obviously involve heavy doses of using less energy, which is why I mentioned the end of leisure (as we are used to it). Computer manufacture, airline flight, these things take up huge amounts of energy that could otherwise go towards food. A world where everything is more expensive forever may not be the end of the world, or of mankind, but it won't be pleasant. Hopefully it is at least survivable for at least half of us.

Anyway I'm not the biggest expert on this stuff (or any kind of expert at all); take it up with those who are if you disagree with me. Start by googling "Hubbert Peak". I'll stop shitting up this thread my a too plausible / not plausible / whatever theory (for time reasons, and because I honestly know nothing; I did none of the original research on this subject).

On July 08 2009 07:49 Caller wrote:

While I seriously doubt that the world will end, I do believe some kind of conflict is inevitable. The Earth is already about 5 billion people or so beyond its current carrying capacity. There will likely be conflict between the developed and the developing nations, and I half-expect the West to lose power while Asia takes over as the new center of the world.
Malthusian theory, however, has failed many, many times, due to advances in technology. While I believe that developed nations will not suffer significantly, developing nations will be hard-pressed to maintain growth if not utter chaos and disaster.

On July 08 2009 11:48 Ghost151 wrote:
if you are talking about "the world" as human civilization then besides instant and random eradication events like universal constants suddenly changing, famine is BY FAR the most likely way we will all go. There are simply too many of us on this little planet.

On July 08 2009 07:18 Abstruse wrote:
sarah palin elected as president of the USA

On July 08 2009 13:30 CommanderFluffy wrote:


gg

On July 08 2009 13:27 RisingTide wrote:
Some people seem to be underestimating the hardiness and adaptivity of the Human race.
Peak oil, mass famine, viruses, zombies, tidal waves, meteors, gradual orbital shift, nuclear war and on and on all have the potential to kill a LOT of humans. Billions of us. But the end of our species? Unlikely. At the end of the last ice age, there were an estimated 1000 of our ancestors left, huddled in caves on the coast of Africa, and we've managed to claw our way to almost 7 billion and total domination of the planet.
So barring any aliens/black holes/gray goo scenario/universal constant change, humanity probably will survive in some form or another. We are the smartest and most adaptive life-forms to ever walk this planet, if anything is going to survive a disaster, it's us.

On July 07 2009 16:47 HuskyTheHusky wrote:


This.

Our extinction will be man-made. We are too smart to be wiped out by virtually anything else. The only natural disaster I can see that would cause human extinction is a giant meteor. But honestly I think we'd have the brainpower around the world to find ways of stopping it. If nothing else we'd throw every single space-capable rocket at it and see what happens.

On July 08 2009 18:07 Zholistic wrote:
Biofuel

In all honesty I can see us heading for a few new post-industrial dark ages due to collapses in western democracy brought about by the rise of ultra-conservative 1984-style governments and the subsequent military revolutions following but humanity will survive that. Worst case: I can foresee a few towns being nuked.

Actually I think that these days we have it worse off than 40/50 years ago. I'm not quite sure that civilization is improving from each generation to the next.

I'm just happy and lucky to be living in Australia! No worries mate

On July 08 2009 10:46 SirKibbleX wrote:
The Earth can easily support more than 9 billion people. Just from flying over South America and most of the U.S. you realize how underpopulated those regions are. The U.S. doesn't use its land nearly as effectively as almost any other country in the world and yet it also outputs a large portion of the world's food. In terms of space there is still tons left. In terms of food production, there are still a lot of improvements to be made and a lot of space to work with.

On July 09 2009 01:45 CrimsonLotus wrote:


Its not just about space, its about natural resources.

I remember researching this subject for a discussion in another forum some months ago and i found a study that said that the ideal number of human would be around 1.5 - 2 billion, but if we want everyone in the world to live like the people in the U.S. do, that number would be less than a billion.

I think it has something to do with the fact that you just cant keep constantly cultivating the land forever, at some points it will need time to replenish, and even at the current population rate that is not happening.

I mean, if we al lived like in the middle ages, im sure the Earth could sustain 10 or 15 billion humans without too much trouble, but with the rise of modern middle classes and the industrialized countries consuming even more each day, its just an unsustainable situation.

PD: Sorry for talking about a study without putting a link to it, is just that i read it months ago and i have no idea how to find it again.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

On July 09 2009 07:16 BalliSLife wrote:
blackholeshoes