If civilizations rise and fall, where is ours now?

[charles brough]

Are you one of those who laugh at the "Doonsday Preppers (see the National Geographic channel prepper series) and dismiss them because "we have always had 'End Times' fanatics?"

 

If so, you might consider that a real one could be coming that has nothing to do with religion.

[Sato]

I don't see any possible doomsday coming up within the next 24 years.

[CaptainPanic]

I don't see any possible doomsday coming up within the next 24 years.

Doomsday is quite literally a single day when the world as we know it is destroyed. Apart from a big rock from space (I guess that's why you choose to say "24 years"?), or one of those mega-mega-mega-disasters that the Discovery Channel / National geographic have some "documentaries" about, that's unlikely to happen. And given the frequency of those disasters, it's not something that we should worry about.

 

The title of this thread however suggests some other issues. Global issues, caused by ourselves (humans). And that's a whole different story. Those are indeed urgent, and something to worry about, but they are slower processes, and the problems caused by them will not wipe out a civilization in a single day.

 

Population growth and our sources for energy are probably the most urgent things. I do not think that we are doing enough to prevent any problems, and indeed these might cause (eventually) civilizations to fall. But I just wouldn't call that "doomsday". It's more like the Roman empire came to an end. It's a succession of poor decisions and relatively small calamities.

[hypervalent_iodine]

!

Moderator Note

Moved to Lounge.

[Sato]

Doomsday is quite literally a single day when the world as we know it is destroyed. Apart from a big rock from space (I guess that's why you choose to say "24 years"?), or one of those mega-mega-mega-disasters that the Discovery Channel / National geographic have some "documentaries" about, that's unlikely to happen. And given the frequency of those disasters, it's not something that we should worry about.

 

The title of this thread however suggests some other issues. Global issues, caused by ourselves (humans). And that's a whole different story. Those are indeed urgent, and something to worry about, but they are slower processes, and the problems caused by them will not wipe out a civilization in a single day.

 

Population growth and our sources for energy are probably the most urgent things. I do not think that we are doing enough to prevent any problems, and indeed these might cause (eventually) civilizations to fall. But I just wouldn't call that "doomsday". It's more like the Roman empire came to an end. It's a succession of poor decisions and relatively small calamities.

Haha, you're right about why I chose 24 years; I found Apophis while looking around here some time ago. Though the impact probability is much less than 1%, it's good to be optimistic.

[Xittenn]

My biggest fear is that one day the entire universe will one day instantly crystallize into a giant grain of quark-gluon plasma. . . .

 

If this happens, I will miss you guys . . . especially the angry button, 'cause he is so cute when he is angry!

[charles brough]

Doomsday is quite literally a single day when the world as we know it is destroyed. Apart from a big rock from space (I guess that's why you choose to say "24 years"?), or one of those mega-mega-mega-disasters that the Discovery Channel / National geographic have some "documentaries" about, that's unlikely to happen. And given the frequency of those disasters, it's not something that we should worry about.

 

The title of this thread however suggests some other issues. Global issues, caused by ourselves (humans). And that's a whole different story. Those are indeed urgent, and something to worry about, but they are slower processes, and the problems caused by them will not wipe out a civilization in a single day.

 

Population growth and our sources for energy are probably the most urgent things. I do not think that we are doing enough to prevent any problems, and indeed these might cause (eventually) civilizations to fall. But I just wouldn't call that "doomsday". It's more like the Roman empire came to an end. It's a succession of poor decisions and relatively small calamities.

I agree. The word "Doomsday" was applied by the National Geographic channel to the prepper series but a slow population crash is far more likely in the decades to come than a single-day catastrophy.