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55 End of the World Scenarios

WindbitWindbit Registered User regular
edited June 2007 in Debate and/or Discourse
I'm sure I'm not the only one who visits Exit Mundi, but here's a heads up: Exit Mundi

For the uninitiated, Exit Mundi is a collection of ways humankind, the Earth, or the entire Universe might be wiped out. It's not as depressing as it sounds: the articles are interesting and enjoyable to read. The scenarios are separated into Any Day Now, The Near Future, The Distant Future, and Religion (it's obvious they don't take the last one too seriously; the zombie apocalypse is in that section).

So, what's it gonna be? Is Earth going to get hit by an asteroid? What if the super volcano at Yellow Stone going to blow up the western world? Maybe we won't be able to reproduce eventually? Perhaps all matter will just fizzle out? Or maybe, just maybe, Jesus will come back, denounce Christianity, and join forces with Allah to battle the armies of darkness (the Islamic Apocalypse is fascinating, by the way).

I hope no one reads these and freaks out: We're all gonna die anyway, so what's it matter how it happens?

Windbit on

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    FirstComradeStalinFirstComradeStalin Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    For the human race, we'll probably either use up our resources and be fucked within the next 200-300 years, or find a way to live sustainably and cleanly. In either scenario, we would still end up eventually colonizing other planets, but in scenario #1 we would leave Earth, while in scenario #2 Earth would probably become the completely urbanized core, with other planets simply acting like planetary suburbs and resource centers, perhaps dumping grounds for pollution.

    For Earth itself, it'll be consumed by the Sun eventually and, barring some terrible nuclear apocalypse, that's the only way it'll go away. It'd be really interesting, though, if some random religion unpracticed now turned out to be the real one, and all of a sudden the Gotterdammerung hits us like a brick wall.

    FirstComradeStalin on
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    themightypuckthemightypuck MontanaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Awesome.

    Do they have Vogons?

    themightypuck on
    “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
    ― Marcus Aurelius

    Path of Exile: themightypuck
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    IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    I favor fire.

    But ice is also nice and will suffice.

    Incenjucar on
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    tehmarkentehmarken BrooklynRegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Anyone who finds this interesting should also read a book called Vacuum Diagrams It's a collection of shrot stories by Stephen Baxter that go over the next couple million years of human existance. Exlporing other planets, meeting alien species, and even escaping the universe as it collapses. It is a VERY enjoyable read.

    tehmarken on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    This might come off as a little weird, but I've always thought that what mankind really needs right now is to have an incredible adversity to face. A survival of the fittest/smartest kind of test. A virus, an alien invasion, a meteorite threat, solar flares, whatever. Might not be exactly end of the world, but similar circumstances with a slightly different ending.

    devoir on
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    themightypuckthemightypuck MontanaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    I favor fire.

    But ice is also nice and will suffice.

    Frosty.
    Someone shoot me.

    themightypuck on
    “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
    ― Marcus Aurelius

    Path of Exile: themightypuck
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    MuttnikMuttnik Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    devoir wrote: »
    This might come off as a little weird, but I've always thought that what mankind really needs right now is to have an incredible adversity to face. A survival of the fittest/smartest kind of test. A virus, an alien invasion, a meteorite threat, solar flares, whatever. Might not be exactly end of the world, but similar circumstances with a slightly different ending.

    I understand the sentiment, but since this has literally never happened in the scope of human history I am just inclined to think that we are our greatest enemies and generally no one but ourselves will be our demise.

    Slightly egotistical, but not a lot of evidence to the contrary in my opinion.

    Muttnik on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Muttnik wrote: »
    devoir wrote: »
    This might come off as a little weird, but I've always thought that what mankind really needs right now is to have an incredible adversity to face. A survival of the fittest/smartest kind of test. A virus, an alien invasion, a meteorite threat, solar flares, whatever. Might not be exactly end of the world, but similar circumstances with a slightly different ending.

    I understand the sentiment, but since this has literally never happened in the scope of human history I am just inclined to think that we are our greatest enemies and generally no one but ourselves will be our demise.

    Slightly egotistical, but not a lot of evidence to the contrary in my opinion.

    Sorry, that's the point I'm trying to make. Without some kind of adversity that would force us to band together and basically halt so much of the world's focus being on "shit, I want what that other guy has", we're going to probably nuke our way into the never never.

    I'd prefer to be a survivor of an outside adversity than a survivor of our own shitstorm. One way lets you hold your head high, the other would tend to indicate that we really are all screwed.

    devoir on
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    IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Um.

    The last time that happened we had McCarthyism.

    Incenjucar on
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    MuttnikMuttnik Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Actually, I find something oddly romantic and poetically tragic about the loneliness of the human race when it comes to adversity.

    Human race as fallen hero and what not. All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers, Cane and Abel kind of stuff.

    There is something beautiful in the fact that virtually our only great struggles are with ourselves, it tells how infinitely strong and infinitely weak we are at the same time.

    Does that make any sort of sense?

    Muttnik on
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    DichotomyDichotomy Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Out of the entirety of that site, there was only one possibility that genuinely chilled me- regarding chromosomes.
    Exit Mundi wrote:
    But on Y, you’ll also find stuff that is harmful to women. For example: sperm contains chemicals that attack the woman’s body. Really! Semen comes with chemicals that shut down the woman’s immune system, so that it can make it into the womb alive.

    That's why X, the female chromosome, hates Y. In response, X is constantly throwing all kinds of wicked chemicals at Y. X is killing Y.

    There's an excerpt. Anyone know this guy's credentials?

    Dichotomy on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    Um.

    The last time that happened we had McCarthyism.

    The last time what happened?
    Muttnik wrote:
    Does that make any sort of sense?

    It makes sense from a philosophical point of view, but I can't see certain things like offplanet colonisation happening with any kind of order and true purpose without a true coming together of sorts, which I don't see happening with how the world appears to be going.

    devoir on
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    IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    That's not X vs. Y it's Y dealing with the fact that X considers sperm, whether X or Y, to be a pathogen.

    You do realize that sperm is a great deal like a virus.

    --

    "What" would be the last time a ginormous threat made people band together.

    People are dicks no matter how bad things get. They're usually WORSE when there's danger as an excuse.

    --

    People are more likely to go to space to compete with each other so they can claim land rights before anyone else can. Hence the whole Race to the Moon thing.

    Incenjucar on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Life.

    The original sexually transmitted disease.

    devoir on
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    MuttnikMuttnik Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Oh, I can.

    The scramble for Africa will look like a goddamn pittance compared to when we find Uranium on mars or something.

    If you ask me, off planet colonization will have not a wit to do with any sort of human unity and everything about competing powers wanting to grab as much as they can. As soon as we have two sets of boots on the ground, you know lines will be drawn in the sand and there will be blood.

    Muttnik on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    That's the thing, I don't see that as true purpose. That kind of action, to me, smacks of us being little more than a virus. We consider ourselves above the animal kingdom, but when you expect that something like offplanet colonisation to essentially induce more wars and corporate greed, it really brings us down to something that cannot exist in any kind of balance with our environment.

    I know I've got a weird point of view, but I can see us being the biggest blight on the universe at large if we don't get away from this splintered, greed-centred mentality.

    devoir on
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    IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Rest assured, one of my deepest, if needless fears is that humanity will, in fact, colonize the stars and just infect the universe.

    I mean, there are worse possibilities than humanity, but still, agh.

    Incenjucar on
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    MuttnikMuttnik Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    But, dudes.

    Space wars.

    Muttnik on
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    MuttnikMuttnik Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Seriously, if your Ghandi hippie tree hugging bullshit messes with my visions of space marines fucking shit up, I will straight up rape you.

    Muttnik on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    There's no reason for there not to be Space Marines.

    But imagine how much more kickass if the entire human race was in one military machine, rather than 10-20 splintered groups with ragtag tech.

    Bring on the alien invasions if we were united. Bring the pain.

    Hell, it's about time.

    devoir on
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    IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Yeah. I too enjoy escapist fantasy.

    Incenjucar on
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    FirstComradeStalinFirstComradeStalin Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Wait, is the Moon technically US property? I mean, we landed their first, right, so it's ours.

    FirstComradeStalin on
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    devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    I think it was declared an international territory.

    Yep.
    Wikipedia wrote:
    Although several flags of the Soviet Union (scattered by Luna 2 in 1959 and by later landing missions) and the United States have been symbolically planted on the Moon, no nation currently claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface. Russia and the US are party to the Outer Space Treaty, which places the Moon under the same jurisdiction as international waters (res communis). This treaty also restricts the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning military installations and weapons of mass destruction (including nuclear weapons).[62]

    A second treaty, the Moon Treaty, was proposed to restrict the exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, but it has not been signed by any of the space-faring nations. Several individuals have made claims to the Moon in whole or in part, although none of these are generally considered credible.

    devoir on
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    WindbitWindbit Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Muttnik wrote: »
    Seriously, if your Ghandi hippie tree hugging bullshit messes with my visions of space marines fucking shit up, I will straight up rape you.

    I've found my new sig.

    Windbit on
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    DichotomyDichotomy Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    Rest assured, one of my deepest, if needless fears is that humanity will, in fact, colonize the stars and just infect the universe.

    I mean, there are worse possibilities than humanity, but still, agh.

    I don't get this line of thinking. What, you want humanity to gutter and die on this godforsaken rock? Don't think humanity is "worthy" of living?

    "Infect" the universe? That's ridiculous. The fact that some people refer to our species as if it were some kind of debilitating plague worries me.

    Fuck that, because I'm human. Yeah, we're not perfect. But I like us just fine. Go on, humanity. Spread across the stars. Entrench yourself on a hundred worlds, a thousand worlds, so that nothing will ever root you out.

    Do not go gently into that cold night!
    Do not go quietly, without a fight!
    And show them that today
    today
    TODAY IS OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY

    Dichotomy on
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    Mai-KeroMai-Kero Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Dichotomy wrote: »
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    Rest assured, one of my deepest, if needless fears is that humanity will, in fact, colonize the stars and just infect the universe.

    I mean, there are worse possibilities than humanity, but still, agh.

    I don't get this line of thinking. What, you want humanity to gutter and die on this godforsaken rock? Don't think humanity is "worthy" of living?

    "Infect" the universe? That's ridiculous. The fact that some people refer to our species as if it were some kind of debilitating plague worries me.

    Fuck that, because I'm human. Yeah, we're not perfect. But I like us just fine. Go on, humanity. Spread across the stars. Entrench yourself on a hundred worlds, a thousand worlds, so that nothing will ever root you out.

    Do not go gently into that cold night!
    Do not go quietly, without a fight!
    And show them that today
    today
    TODAY IS OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY

    AW HAIL NO!

    Mai-Kero on
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    HenryVapeHenryVape Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Dibs on being god emperor. Power armor, big banners with latin text and lightsabers ahead!

    HenryVape on
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    Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam
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    spacerobotspacerobot Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    I love the google ads, especially the one on the chromosomes page.

    spacerobot on
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