What would be humanity's likeliest demise?

[Atlas2342]

How will human life on earth end?

Edited March 30, 2016 by Atlas2342

[PB666]

2 minutes ago, Atlas2342 said:

How will the earth end?

This thread just begs for a political war.

 

[tater]

Aside from cosmic threats, I see nothing on the poll capable of ending "the Earth" at all. Even cosmic threats would require an impact substantially larger than the one that created the Moon, or the inevitable destruction by the Sun later in its life.

[Atlas2342]

6 minutes ago, tater said:

Aside from cosmic threats, I see nothing on the poll capable of ending "the Earth" at all. Even cosmic threats would require an impact substantially larger than the one that created the Moon, or the inevitable destruction by the Sun later in its life.

Hmm, Sorry didn't make it clear.I meant life on earth 

EDIT: changed

[Darnok]

GMO plants and human DNA modifications will mutate, create virus that will kill every living thing on Earth. After virus lose its hosts it will also die.

[tater]

You might as well change it to only be people, because my same observations apply. Even if only "what will end all human life on Earth?" were to be the question, ALL is remarkably unlikely in any case that doesn't destroy the Earth.

[Atlas2342]

3 minutes ago, tater said:

You might as well change it to only be people, because my same observations apply. Even if only "what will end all human life on Earth?" were to be the question, ALL is remarkably unlikely in any case that doesn't destroy the Earth.

Indeed unlikely, but very much possible...

[Randazzo]

Human short-sightedness, ego, nationalism, and stupidity. In any combination.

[Steel]

53 minutes ago, PB666 said:

This thread just begs for a political war.

 

 

1 minute ago, Randazzo said:

Human short-sightedness, ego, nationalism, and stupidity. In any combination.

Rather than going political, shall we try to keep this thread to likely direct causes of the end of humanity?

Edited March 30, 2016 by Steel

[Randazzo]

Just now, Steel said:

 

Rather than going political, shall we try to keep this thread to likely direct causes of the end of humanity?

Those are direct causes, and that statement is not political.

[Steel]

15 minutes ago, Randazzo said:

Those are direct causes, and that statement is not political.

I would argue that you can't wipeout humanity directly with ego, there has to be another element actually causing deaths.

[p1t1o]

Malthusian Catastrophe.

Also, I'll be the first person to mention Trump.

**edit**

I dont think nuclear war can end all humans, there will always be places that would have been nuked if those nukes weren't nuked first (if you follow...) in other words, in an all-out exchange, it is not advantageous to you to attempt to target your warheads in such a way as to annihilate 100% of enemy population, you will want to target some of their weapons in order to maximise your own chance of survival, and so will they. It is very unlikely that both sides would be SO succesful at killing the enemy and AT THE SAME TIME be so unsuccessful at defending their own space.

Nuclear fallout won't sterilise the planet either, unless someone goes out of their way to create a Dr.Strangelove style doomsday device, which is also unlikely.

All thats off the top of my head though so Im not going to the mat to defend it....

Edited March 30, 2016 by p1t1o

[KSK]

Overpopulation and climate change leading to inadequate food and water security, followed by warfare to secure what resources are left, followed by some suitably desperate nation kicking things off with a nuke. Probably wouldn't kill off all of humanity but living in whatever's left wouldn't be a lot of fun.

Edit: In a probably vain attempt to keep this on track, I refuse to speculate on the root causes of said climate change.

Edited March 30, 2016 by KSK

[tater]

Given posts already here I'd say death by hyperbolic rhetoric.

[HebaruSan]

Either

1. Our descendants will someday no longer be recognizably "human", or
2. We'll destroy enough of the ecosystem that we can't feed ourselves, and it's back to bacteria for a while

Comparisons with Mars and Venus might be instructive. For example, we're toast if anything ever happens to the magnetosphere, which requires rotating molten iron in the core. So we could arrogantly use up that iron to build a million death stars, or it could solidify due to some extreme circumstances, or its rotation could slow down.

And of course the Sun's red dwarf stage is a very hard to avoid time limit for all life on Earth.

[Darnok]

10 minutes ago, KSK said:

Overpopulation and climate change leading to inadequate food and water security, followed by warfare to secure what resources are left, followed by some suitably desperate nation kicking things off with a nuke. Probably wouldn't kill off all of humanity but living in whatever's left wouldn't be a lot of fun.

Edit: In a probably vain attempt to keep this on track, I refuse to speculate on the root causes of said climate change.

If climate change is natural then it won't be cause, because changes has happen before.

Overpopulation? Where?

How overpopulation could kill us while we have entire solar system of resources?
 

OP  this "Global warming/Volcanism" suggest that warming is caused by volcanism.

[insert_name]

12 minutes ago, Darnok said:

1 If climate change is natural then it won't be cause, because changes has happen before.

2 Overpopulation? Where?

3. How overpopulation could kill us while we have entire solar system of resources?
 

OP  this "Global warming/Volcanism" suggest that warming is caused by volcanism.

1. whatever caused the last 5 mass extinctions was natural too, although knowing how these threads go, some nut is going to debate that

2. india, china, the rest of the world

3. because we will not be able to harness those resources for a significant amount of time

[Darnok]

1 minute ago, insert_name said:

1. whatever caused the last 5 mass extinctions was natural too, although knowing how these threads go, some nut is going to debate that

2. india, china, the rest of the world

3. because we will not be able to harness those resources for a significant amount of time

 

1. Weakest won't survive, but that doesn't mean all life will end because of change of weather.

2. and how overpopulation in India or China can kill people in Europe?

3. and we will not hit overpopulation for a significant amount of time for entire Earth. Just because some places are overcrowded doesn't mean Earth is overpopulated.
I read somewhere that if we would put all humans in Australia then every family would have private house and garden and Earth has more lands than just Australia.

[insert_name]

2 minutes ago, Darnok said:

 

1. Weakest won't survive, but that doesn't mean all life will end because of change of weather.

2. and how overpopulation in India or China can kill people in Europe?

3. and we will not hit overpopulation for a significant amount of time for entire Earth. Just because some places are overcrowded doesn't mean Earth is overpopulated.
I read somewhere that if we would put all humans in Australia then every family would have private house and garden and Earth has more lands than just Australia.

1. humanity would suffer major economic losses, and economic unrest leads to political unrest

2. air polloution kills a significant number of people guess what countries contribute the most to air pollution

3. we could fit all humans in texas, but we would still need farms, factories and other forms of infastructure

[Bill Phil]

10 minutes ago, Darnok said:

 

1. Weakest won't survive, but that doesn't mean all life will end because of change of weather.

2. and how overpopulation in India or China can kill people in Europe?

3. and we will not hit overpopulation for a significant amount of time for entire Earth. Just because some places are overcrowded doesn't mean Earth is overpopulated.
I read somewhere that if we would put all humans in Australia then every family would have private house and garden and Earth has more lands than just Australia.

Just because we can fit them there doesn't mean we can make them live there. Farmland, water, land for animals, etc. For example: it takes ~15000 liters of water to make 1kg of beef.

[Darnok]

30 minutes ago, insert_name said:

1. humanity would suffer major economic losses, and economic unrest leads to political unrest

2. air polloution kills a significant number of people guess what countries contribute the most to air pollution

3. we could fit all humans in texas, but we would still need farms, factories and other forms of infastructure

1. But we had epidemics in Europe, so we will survive, don't worry.

2. USA over 50% global pollution, if you count in all their industry located outside of their borders.

3. Because our industry is developed in wrong direction. We should produce less products, but they should be more durable. It would cut resource, space and energy consumption of global industry.

 

 

24 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

Just because we can fit them there doesn't mean we can make them live there. Farmland, water, land for animals, etc. For example: it takes ~15000 liters of water to make 1kg of beef.

But those 15000 liters is not send to space, it is still on Earth. Also if you watched video I posted you should blame overweighted people for that, they eat too much.

[fredinno]

I refuse to join this thread. It is pointless, this thread is just begging to be locked....

[kerbiloid]

Several millenia later not very numerous, elder and immortal human cyborgs, united and unified by a cerebral internet, will change their life form and achieve the next level.
Humanity as a socium of post-apes will be finished. Humanity as non-human post-humans will begin.

Edited March 30, 2016 by kerbiloid

[Spaceception]

Humanity will die with the universe, so I picked "Cosmic threats", I have hope that humanity will survive for the next few trillion years or so

[WinkAllKerb'']

more optimistic scenario mean: low battery

either sun, either planet core

let's hope children(s) been able to bring some "stuff"/"knowledge"/"others being" somewhere else before it happen

Edited March 30, 2016 by WinkAllKerb''
the poles told me, either north or south. if not warm that's cold