• The End Is Nigh! Stephen Hawkings says mankind won't survive another 1000 years on earth
    126 replies, posted
I wonder what he thinks of capitalism and related morbid fantasies of infinite growth in a finite world.
So Futurama is [I]wrong[/I]! I've been lied to this entire time!
I hope that by 1000 years Humanity will mourn the end of Earth with a traditional ballad. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TUo[/media] [QUOTE=DevinWatson;40259051][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ZZ0J1Jyl.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Are those two at the back having BDSM sex?
Just gotta make it to the year 2525, then that song will be totally meta.
or 2112
[QUOTE=Lizzrd;40259013]We'll all be sitting in wheelchairs unable to reproduce without the aid of robots.[/QUOTE] I'm afraid that may become our future
[QUOTE=Géza!;40260674]I'm afraid that may become our future[/QUOTE] No sense in fearing the inevitable.
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;40259266]That's for a full terraforming effort, there's nothing to stop us going right now and building a super strong dome and changing the local environment to have a home city and then just start seeding the rest of the planet with engineered life to do the work for us. Smash a few meteors into the poles to release the gases and water and it'll be good as new.[/QUOTE] Ahahahahaaaaa... You've never heard of the disaster that was Biosphere 2?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;40259043]Optimistically, we will eventually have the technology to effectively colonize almost every planet and moon in this system. Though I'm sure Earth and Mars will be the only ones we'll be able to be out on the surface, mostly exposed to the atmosphere with.[/QUOTE] Poor Venus never gets any attention, it already has a lovely atmosphere. All we need to do it make it not boiling and breathable.
Well now, 1000 years is a pretty damn long timespan. I'd expect some clever bastard to figure out a viable method for interstellar travel way before than this deadline.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;40259722]I wouldn't say we would "never recover". We've made it this far from the last ice age. If another hit, we'd definitely would have a head start from left over technologies from last time around.[/QUOTE] The problem is we've already tapped most of the easy to come by wells of oil and a lot of other resources, if we go down now there's a pretty good chance that we'd have a really tough time actually getting resources again to support a continued technological civilisation. [editline]13th April 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=supersoldier58;40261358]Poor Venus never gets any attention, it already has a lovely atmosphere. All we need to do it make it not boiling and breathable.[/QUOTE] And a way to deal with the Sulphuric Acid in the atmosphere. [editline]13th April 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=EpicRandomnes;40261318]Ahahahahaaaaa... You've never heard of the disaster that was Biosphere 2?[/QUOTE] Yeah so here's what you do. You run the experiment over and over and over and over until you get it perfect. "HAHAHA DIDN'T YOU HEAR ABOUT THAT ONE EXPERIMENT THAT WENT TO SHIT!?" You say that as if it should somehow deter anyone, as opposed to actually drive them to do better.
[QUOTE=Killer900;40259023]You know it's a pretty amazing when you think about how lucky we are to have an Earth-like planet LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO US in our solar system. I mean sure it's pretty much just a dead, cold, lifeless rock, but we could definitely change it to suit our needs for a planet. Just imagine how many civilizations out there in the Cosmos don't have a similar planet to theirs in their own solar system. Shit, it's like there's our opportunity, right in front of our face, and we aren't even using it. It's kinda frustrating.[/QUOTE]It would take one hell of a terraforming project; Mars is less dense than Earth [I]and[/I] it's core is dead, meaning no magnetic field to protect an atmosphere. It's atmosphere is incredibly thin, and mostly comprised of (99%) carbon dioxide.
[QUOTE=gudman;40259365]What kind of shit has to hit the fan to drive human beings to extinction? I doubt you can compare humankind to dinosaurs because we're far-far-far more advanced then they were, biologically even. There's no other species as durable as we are.[/QUOTE] Biologically this is bullshit. And to your question: Yellowstone supervolcanoe is pretty much sure to wipe out all life that is bigger than a weed and a rat.
Kind of sad how Humanity can reduce the bloom of a planet to this extend.
[QUOTE=proch;40264425]Kind of sad how Humanity can reduce the bloom of a planet to this extend.[/QUOTE] Well it would have come to this no matter what, we went through a industrial revolution and started learning and testing things in even bigger scale. Making quite many mistakes on the way too. But we know more now and can make a fresh start on a planet without ruining it's ecosystem. For example, over 50 years ago everyone thought that oceans had infinite amount of fish and didn't suffer at all from dumping industrial waste into it. We won't be making such mistakes anymore.
Oh we will, it's rarely profitable to dispose of industrial waste in a safe way - yay for the profit motive!
[QUOTE=JustExtreme;40264986]Oh we will, it's rarely profitable to dispose of industrial waste in a safe way - yay for the profit motive![/QUOTE] It'll be even less proftiable when their industries collapse.
It's decided, We shall pillage planets, screw alien chicks and grow big beards as we evolve into Galaxy's Space Vikings
[QUOTE=DevinWatson;40259051][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ZZ0J1Jyl.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] This reminds of this music video. [video=youtube;6Ck6Hcg2cjk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ck6Hcg2cjk[/video]
I'm pretty sure Stephen Hawking is wrong on this regard, because not even the World's end is going to stop humans from moving on.
First priority is making peace with each-other, because war fucking sucks. There needs to just be one race of humans who can work on 'future of humanity' projects, instead of wasting so much money on military and war (by far the largest budget that every country has) with each other, a totally pointless endeavour. 1.4 trillion annually would go a long way to getting the USA out of debt, helping to develop undeveloped countries, followed by being deployed on science, health and welbeing projects, and then onto space projects. Hell, if the entire budget currently spent on military was put towards research I bet cures for cancer, AIDS and other major diseases would be found really fucking fast, and we could terraform mars within 10 years and start working on deep-space starships within 20.
[QUOTE=SCopE5000;40265235]First priority is making peace with each-other, because war fucking sucks. There needs to just be one race of humans who can work on 'future of humanity' projects, instead of wasting so much money on military and war (by far the largest budget that every country has) with each other, a totally pointless endeavour. 1.4 trillion annually would go a long way to getting the USA out of debt, helping to develop undeveloped countries, followed by being deployed on science, health and welbeing projects, and then onto space projects. Hell, if the entire budget currently spent on military was put towards research I bet cures for cancer, AIDS and other major diseases would be found really fucking fast, and we could terraform mars within 10 years and start working on deep-space starships within 20.[/QUOTE]In a way we kind of need war, not only is it in our blood (we're a predatory race on the top of the food chain), but in case we ever run into not so friendly extraterrestrials who want nothing more to exterminate us for God knows why, we need to know how to defend ourselves. Killing one another is dumb yes, but war is a necessary evil.
[QUOTE=gudman;40259365]What kind of shit has to hit the fan to drive human beings to extinction?[/QUOTE] A nuke.
[QUOTE=Killer900;40267286]In a way we kind of need war, not only is it in our blood (we're a predatory race on the top of the food chain), but in case we ever run into not so friendly extraterrestrials who want nothing more to exterminate us for God knows why, we need to know how to defend ourselves. Killing one another is dumb yes, but war is a necessary evil.[/QUOTE] Of course a standing military is necessary. But we need to stop using it on each other. That's what I think he meant anyway.
[QUOTE=Wolfos;40268967]Of course a standing military is necessary. But we need to stop using it on each other. That's what I think he meant anyway.[/QUOTE] [quote]First priority is making peace [B]with each-other[/B], because war fucking sucks.[/quote]whoops
I suspect this is just scaremongering from Hawkings in order to inspire us to get back into space.
[QUOTE=xiohexia;40274491]I suspect this is just scaremongering from Hawkings in order to inspire us to get back into space.[/QUOTE] It's not scare mongering when it's true, we haven't catalouged something like 99% of the asteroids near Earth, any one of those could smash us and cause a lot of damage and that's not including all the ones that are a bit further out that we have no idea about including all the rocks in the Oort cloud that could get kicked inwards towards us and end up becoming comets. We're sitting in the middle of a shooting range and at some point somethings gonna hit us again.
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;40274685]It's not scare mongering when it's true, we haven't catalouged something like 99% of the asteroids near Earth, any one of those could smash us and cause a lot of damage and that's not including all the ones that are a bit further out that we have no idea about including all the rocks in the Oort cloud that could get kicked inwards towards us and end up becoming comets. We're sitting in the middle of a shooting range and at some point somethings gonna hit us again.[/QUOTE] From what I understand, Apophis's running by us gave us great insight on the comings and goings of asteroids and their like for the future, which will aid us in deflecting any that come a bit too close for comfort. [editline]14th April 2013[/editline] That's what I heard on NPR's science hour at least.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;40274763]From what I understand, Apophis's running by us gave us great insight on the comings and goings of asteroids and their like for the future, which will aid us in deflecting any that come a bit too close for comfort. [editline]14th April 2013[/editline] That's what I heard on NPR's science hour at least.[/QUOTE] We have a good idea on how to deflect them, but that's absolutely useless if we can't spot one coming at us.
Unless we someone find a way to terraform the Earth.I think the Earth will be a toxic waste dump in 100 or 200 years 300 if we're lucky.
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