I wonder how the human race will die.

[SkepticLance]

The human ability to adapt by means of technology is pretty much unlimited. These days, there are people who live at the South Pole through the southern winter, with temperatures heading towards minus 100 C, and total darkness - not to mention 150 kph blizzards.

 

The people are snug and warm inside their heated and lighted buildings. If they gotta go outside, they do so in suits that are nearly spacesuits, and carry lights.

 

If the ecology of planet Earth changes to the point of making unprotected human life untenable, there will still be more than a billion of us living on in comfort. Within 200 years, there will be colonies on the moon and Mars, and on rotating habitats in space.

 

Its gonna take a lot more than a little ecology to kill us off.

[woelen]

I agree with ScepticLance that mankind will not be wiped out by a change in the ecosystem of planet Earth. The only thing which could wipe us out is a cosmic disaster, such as a collision of planet Earth with a giant comet or rock (10+ kilometer diameter), or a fatal change in the energy output of the sun.

 

I personally do not believe, however, that such a thing ever will happen (for religious reasons). Mankind will never be wiped out.

[SkepticLance]

Let's not get into a religious argument.

 

Our sun is, in fact, slowly expanding. This is almost too small to measure, but not quite. It will expand to the point that :

 

1. In 400 million years, the whole Earth will exceed 100 Celsius. This will destroy all life except a few thermophiles which will take a little longer to die.

 

2. In 5000 million years, it will expand to the point where it will engulf the Earth.

 

However, I have no doubt that humans will have colonised our galaxy long before this happens. We will, indeed, take a large variety of Earth life with us, and create the equivalent of 'New Earths' throughout the galaxy.

[JamesCS]

However, I have no doubt that humans will have colonised our galaxy long before this happens. We will, indeed, take a large variety of Earth life with us, and create the equivalent of 'New Earths' throughout the galaxy.

 

I will agree to this.

 

However, if Earth life ends before then, I think it will be due to an asteroid or a large natural storm. I don't think it's possible for us to kill ourselves off (wars, economy etc); at most, we will just be regressed back to a primitive "sticks and stones" era. An asteroid or some abnormal heat wave are the highest probably of instant destruction, in my opinion, which is still extremely low.

[MolotovCocktail]

Another thing that I was thinking as well is that since we now have the genome mapped out, we can evolve ourselves in ways that will allow us to survive almost anything. I'm thinking that while the future of homo sapian sapian is rather short nowadays, humanity as a whole, what ever it may evolve into, will continue to pass its genetic code throughout several billion years, maybe even evolving into something else all together. If and when we colonize space, we would surely evolve into something that is much more likely to adapt to the sudden change in environment (it has been suggested that people living in space stations should be born with 4 arms and no legs to adapt to zero or little gravity). wAlso consider that in a few years it will be possible to put computer implants into the human brain, thereby enhancing our intelligence. Also, it has been predicted that we will be able to create machines as smart as humans as early as 2030.

 

I do not believe that humanity can be wiped out at this point. But I do believe that civilization as it exists may be wiped out. But you have to remember that even though catastrophes have occurred throughout history like the Black Plague and the collapse of early civilizations such as Egypt and Rome, the knowledge accumulated by those civilizations was not lost, it either splintered or moved on to other, more stable regions where it was preserved, translated and improved on.

[Edtharan]

At the rate we could realistically expand through the galaxy, it is quite possible that a supernova might go off near enough to us (and the few colonised systems). Such an event would emit lots of harmful radiation and could quite possibly wipe us out. IIRC if such an event occurred within a few hundred light years of us it would be enough (can any one confirm this? - How close would a supernova have to be to actually wipe us out and are there any stars that could do this in a few million years?).

[SkepticLance]

To Edtharan.

A supernova would have to be quite close to kill everyone off - a few light years. The problem is that a little protection (eg, huddling in a mine) would be enough to save people.

 

Try a gamma ray burster. That would wipe out all life within several thousand light years.

[Guest elsie]

Humans will keep fiddling with DNA until we have created a 'super race'. The super race will be so advanced that they will be able to use their brains to control others etc. and then one, who wants to take over the world, will make a machine which allows him to control all minds simultaneously, but he will overuse his power and kill them all (probably by causing a stroke). Then he will die alone, still trying to create a time machine.

 

[Yes, the x-men movies did inspire this]