How will it end?

What do you predict to be the end of mankind, hopefully way off into the future?

The atomic bombs in the next world war will destroy the planet!

If the Muslim Brotherhood take over Egypt, it may be sooner than later. Armageddon, the war against Israel will be just around the corner.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

The atomic bombs in the next world war will destroy the planet!

If that were the case think of how lonely it would be if you were on a space mission at the time...

Quote: clarkacal

If that were the case think of how lonely it would be if you were on a space mission at the time...

Good science fiction movie idea. That was the intent in Moonraker, but James saved the day, as usual.

My vote was disease. Something like an I am Legend or The Stand scenario, but without the survivors.

Mankind evolves into the next order of existence (I'm not sure WHAT order, but the next one...)

The Universe probably won't last forever. when it goes, we go with it.

Nanobots Gone Wild!

(yes, yes, pulling up their tiny t-shirts and all that)

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Mankind evolves into the next order of existence (I'm not sure WHAT order, but the next one...)

There was Ascencion in Stargate. And something even less explicit in Babylon 5.

Conventional wisdom was that evolution stopped for our species when we began to control our environment and protect our weaker members. But it turns out that's wrong. In fact, we seem to be evolving faster now, because there are so many more people and a proportional higher chance for mutations. Exactly how we're evolving is not clear, though.

Boredom.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Mankind evolves into the next order of existence (I'm not sure WHAT order, but the next one...)

This was the premise of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", a SF classic.

Do zombies count as a disease?

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Mankind evolves into the next order of existence (I'm not sure WHAT order, but the next one...)

Quote: Nareed

There was Ascencion in Stargate. And something even less explicit in Babylon 5.

Quote: mkl654321

This was the premise of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", a SF classic.

Actually, I took it from 2001. Such an evolution is very well described in the book. Each step in the evolution is detailed. It concludes: "...and anything beyond that, can only be called 'God'."

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Actually, I took it from 2001. Such an evolution is very well described in the book. Each step in the evolution is detailed. It concludes: "...and anything beyond that, can only be called 'God'."

Well then

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Actually, I took it from 2001. Such an evolution is very well described in the book. Each step in the evolution is detailed. It concludes: "...and anything beyond that, can only be called 'God'."

Oh, if we want to evolve into non-existence, there are far easier ways :P

Seriously, I regard the whole 2000s series by Clarke as his most forgettable work, and that includes works for the juvenile market like "Islands in the Sky."

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Mankind evolves into the next order of existence (I'm not sure WHAT order, but the next one...)

I'm guessing you're not one of the people who though Jesus was visiting soon. And if there IS a Jesus, and if he DID come back, I think he'd be so irate at what we've done to the world, and what we do to each other, he'd shake his head in disappointment.

Quote: Nareed

The Universe probably won't last forever. when it goes, we go with it.

We'll be loooong gone by the time the Universe ends.

I see it happening as population decline which saps the productivity of the people at first, then some kind of terminal decline from which mankind does not recover.

The developed world has already reached near zero-population growth. Of the large economies, only the USA and India are at a birthrate to maintain population, and the USA is barely above that. If you have read on the subject you have read that first the birthrate falls, but it falls faster than people die so populations grow older very fast. People are having fewer kids or (like me) none by choice. Eventually the young will not be able to take care of the old, tired and taxed to death to try they will have even fewer kids. This could drive the birth rate to or below 1.0 per woman. Eventually there would not be enough people to run the machinery that keeps the world going. Anarchy happens and man dies out.

Good luck with all that!

Ok, who voted for Jesus, come forward.

Quote: zippyboy

We'll be loooong gone by the time the Universe ends.

I'd ask you to lay odds on that. But if I win I won't be able to collect, so what's the point?

Quote: Nareed

I'd ask you to lay odds on that. But if I win I won't be able to collect, so what's the point?

Scientists believe that our planet is about 4 billion years old, and the universe is waaaay older than that. Planets and stars have been born and died long before Earth was made. If you believe the Big Bang created our universe, some scientists think it may not have even been the first Big Bang. Perhaps this is the 4th, or the sixteenth universe, of which our Earth is just a dustspeck. Dinosaurs lived around 160 million years. Mankind has only been around 50,000 years, and at the rate that we hate each other, kill each other in the name of our Gods, pollute our own backyards, invent diseases and weapons and so forth, I doubt we'll make it another 50,000 years, or even another 2000. The universe will go on and on looooong after we're gone. You want odds? It's 100%.

Think of life as a party that has always been going on. I just got to the party recently. I had some good food and some drinks, danced with a few girls who were there at the same time, but I'm gonna have to leave in a little while. The party will go on without me, with new chefs, servers, musicians, comedians and guests. Fights broke out from time to time out in the yard, occasionally some Alpha Male spoke up and commanded respect from some of the people in the room (and some folks couldn't stop talking about him even after he'd left), couple women kept coming out of the kitchen with new hors d'oeuvres for us to try, one guy marked his spot on the couch and refused to budge, some didn't stay very long while others outstayed their welcome and were shown the door. But the party continues. It's always been going on, and will continue forever.

I read a mind-blowing statistic the other day. In the time man in our current form has been around, 50,000 years or so, the population grew very slowly up until the last century, when we've ballooned in numbers up to 7 billion now. It's estimated that there's been less than 50 billion people who have lived and died throughout that 50,000 years, which means that of all the people who have ever lived ever, 10% are alive and walking the planet right now.

Quote: zippyboy

Perhaps this is the 4th, or the sixteenth universe, of which our Earth is just a dustspeck.

Don't be silly. Compared to the size of the Universe, the Earth isn't large enough to be a dust speck.

But just because you believe you're nothing doesn't mean everyone else does either. I'd bet not only that there will be people around in as little as 50,000 years, but that they'll be much better off than we are now, but how would I collect on that?

I vote natural disaster, probably like the K-T event (asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs), but with a twist:

In the next 100-200 years, the population with reach a breaking point, and a combination of war, famine, disease, and lack of resources (water, food, oil, etc.) will lead to a significant portion of the population dying off. We'll be left with a few hundred million humans, or maybe a billion at most. Much of our current technology will be lost in the process. Say goodbye to electricity, cars, airplanes, etc. The survivors will be forced to go back to subsistence level farming to survive. This will last for a very long time, maybe 1000 years or more.

And sometime during that long interval when humanity is climbing back towards where we are now, an asteroid we won't be able to stop will hit the Earth, putting the planet into a long nuclear winter from which no humans will emerge.

(Wow that sounds gloomy. Glad I won't be around to see it.)

Quote: Wizard

Good science fiction movie idea. That was the intent in Moonraker, but James saved the day, as usual.

My vote was disease. Something like an I am Legend or The Stand scenario, but without the survivors.

The odds of a disease killing off everyone are extraordinarily low. Immunity and adaptation, it is how we got this far.

Food and water aren't going to be an issue, not for the first world. Farming techniques are too efficient. And as for population overload, there are methods of population control. Apart from the straight approach, biomedical advances will allow the first world to develop a few agents that are expensive to treat, spread them worldwide, vaccinating own population, and so cut off most everyone below the poverty line. Continue with high retention chemical agents, poisoning the crops, and plain Nam-style herbicides to destroy their farming capacity. Overpopulation is not that hard to deal with.

The most likely endgame scenario? Western civilization rotting and falling apart, then something bad happens, like the icecaps melt, and washes out lesser civilizations. As for the survivors, it's not as much that they won't be able to resurrect humanity etc, most likely they will be well able, but they'll have more important things to worry about, like keeping up with the Joneses. The last few humans will die of age-related diseases in the comfort of their homes, not having cared to produce an offspring.

The next most likely scenario is as simple as a disaster we think we can handle, but can't. Earth's axis shifts, a movement of ocean levels floods most coastal cities. Whether they are evacuated in time or not doesn't prevent the economic damage. Glacier movement and the ensuing ice age clean out the weakened civilizations. The richer part of the population will find ways to survive, but won't care enough about any humanity revival, dying out of old age in their relatively luxurious cities. Their offspring, with old money no longer holding value, will not have the means to sustain their existence. Those few who do bother to start sustenance farming just don't do well enough.

Quote: Toes14

In the next 100-200 years, the population with reach a breaking point, and a combination of war, famine, disease, and lack of resources (water, food, oil, etc.) will lead to a significant portion of the population dying off. We'll be left with a few hundred million humans, or maybe a billion at most. Much of our current technology will be lost in the process. Say goodbye to electricity, cars, airplanes, etc. The survivors will be forced to go back to subsistence level farming to survive. This will last for a very long time, maybe 1000 years or more.

I agree here. Whether you believe we've reached peak oil or not, we are running out of the black gold to the tune of nearly 90 million barrels every day worldwide. And they ain't makin' any more. Wars will be fought over it. As China and India take a bigger slice of the petrol pie, America will feel the pinch and take measures to protect our way of life. American soldiers will NEVER leave the Mideast. We fought 2 Gulf wars over there just to keep our foot in the door and keep the oil running...for US, not for China.

In the 110 years that we've had cars and planes, we've depleted oceans of the stuff and discovered ways to turn petroleum into every single thing on the planet. Our leaders don't care too much because it won't affect our lives, but it will affect our children's, and certainly grand-children's. In fact, in 50 years, schoolkids will be taught what life was like back in ol' 1990 and they be amazed, and pissed off, that we collectively, selfishly wasted a resource so valuable. That we could pay $2/pound for tomatoes in December by shipping them up from South America. Ridiculous!...they'll think. That we thought nothing of driving 5 miles in an SUV to the grocery store for trinkets. Remember how the whole world changed back in 2008 when gas hit $4 in the States, and $5 in California? It was panic! Car companies went bankrupt, we lost whole brands of cars that had been around 80 years, hybrid technology gained a foothold, airlines cut back on flights and started charging for checked baggage, etc. What will happen when gas hits $6/gallon? And $8? And more? Our highway system will become traintracks as people start using trains again and other mass transit. We'll lose airline companies because no one will pay crazy prices to fly home from college for the holidays. They'll merge into just 2 or 3 worldwide conglomerates catering to the rich. We won't be able to ship food cross-country cheaply so people will get back into gardening, maybe city-wide cooperatives. We will localize rather than globalize, since long-distance travel will not be possible. I think we'll still have coal-fired electricity, but the throw-away mentality we have now will have to change. No more plastic bags, or plastic packaging of any kind. Tires, nylon, rugs, cosmetics, detergents, insulation and practically everything we use every day will have to be reinvented using other methods.

Life will go back to the way it was 200 years ago, before we became spoiled. People will ride bikes and get back into shape.

Now if we can just get rid of corn.

Quote: P90

Food and water aren't going to be an issue, not for the first world.

Water is already an issue. Look at the water issues the entire western US is having. Australia has been in a severe drought for 10 years. Europe has an uneven distribution of water and has bad problems with industrial waste fouling their rivers.

I think it will be some type of black swan event that is so surprising, unprecedented, and all consuming that no economists or scientists have the time to prepare for or prevent it, and they haven't the experience to know what is happening until it's too late.

Maybe the internet has advanced to a type of telepathy to which the vast majority of the population subscribes, one guy spontaneously combusts, and this triggers a lightning fast chain reaction (I guess that's a lot like the Borg collective) that wipes out all but a few very primitive cultures. These cultures can't survive on a planet that has been so polluted by contaminents no longer properly contained or treated.

Quote: Toes14

Water is already an issue. Look at the water issues the entire western US is having. Australia has been in a severe drought for 10 years. Europe has an uneven distribution of water and has bad problems with industrial waste fouling their rivers.

Yeah, but it's issues along the lines of "oh no we have go switch olives for local crops", at most "oh no we have to take 5 minute showers instead of 20 minute". There is still plenty of water for all reasonably moderated uses.

There is a possibility that it (civilization, not mankind) may have ended once and we are on our second go round. The Toba catastrophe theory which suggests that a bottleneck of the human population occurred about 70,000 years ago, and the human population was reduced to about 15,000 individuals when the Toba supervolcano in Indonesia erupted and triggered a major environmental change.

The theory is based on geological evidences of sudden climate change, and on coalescence evidences of some genes (including mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome and some nuclear genes) and the relatively low level of genetic variation with humans.

The pre-Toba humans would be as capable as we are of producing civilization, but there may have been more competition. Some people think that the only two human types to survive the catastrophe were modern humans and Neanderthals. The Neanderthals lost out at a later date roughly 30,000 years ago.

Although it would seem that there would be some archeological evidence, it is surprising how few constructs of present day man would survive for 70,000 years. One of the very few items that would survive that long would be gold bricks.

People are surviving in harsh conditions right now, so I wouldn't necessarily think that would be enough to finish us. It will certainly depopulate us.

Our ancestors managed under difficult conditions without modern technology.

Quote: zippyboy

I agree here. Whether you believe we've reached peak oil or not, we are running out of the black gold to the tune of nearly 90 million barrels every day worldwide. And they ain't makin' any more. Wars will be fought over it. As China and India take a bigger slice of the petrol pie, America will feel the pinch and take measures to protect our way of life. American soldiers will NEVER leave the Mideast. We fought 2 Gulf wars over there just to keep our foot in the door and keep the oil running...for US, not for China.

Life will go back to the way it was 200 years ago, before we became spoiled. People will ride bikes and get back into shape.

Now if we can just get rid of corn.

Three is more oil out there if we look or it. JR Ewing said it best when he told Bobby, "The world has been running out of oil since the first well was drilled." In Nooth Dakota they are having an oil boom and just 3.8% unemployment. It is because they found a new way to drill. That is the key, DRILL. We had an oil shock in 1973 and again in 1979. So "conservation" was preached. But conservation never found a drop of oil. When Dick Cheney said as much he was ridiculed in the press as if he said the sky is green. But it is true--since the AK pipeline USA Energy Policy mainly focused on "conservation" instead of production-which is a road to ruin.

Compare it to a casino. Baming revenues go down 5% one year. So you lay off some dealers and the greeter who says, "Welcome to the Tangiers Hotel-good luck in the casino!" to everyone who walks in. The next year revenue falls another 5% and taxes and other costs go up. So you get rid of a few more positions. If this keeps going on there will be nothing left to cut. Revenue must increase at some point to keep profits growing at the same time other costs rise. Similarly, Oil production must rise to meet the needs of an expanding population and economy.

ND and surrounding states will soon be giving 2MM bbl/day production to the USA. Here in PA we are getting a mini-boom in natural gas drilling. Some NIMBY folks are against it yet for some reason they still expect their furnace to work and their car to start.

Quote: AZDuffman

Three is more oil out there if we look or it.

I'm sure there is more out there, plenty more that we haven't even discovered. The point is, at our current and increasing state of consumption, with a finite supply (however large it is), how long will it last? 50, 100, 200+ years? At that point, barring a technological breakthrough of a true renewable and efficient fuel source, the world will be much different.

I personally think some disease or super bug, like MRSA, will wipe out a majority of the population before that though. Bacteria and virus can mutate and evolve many orders of magnitude faster than we can figure out new prevention and treatment options.

Good chance crickets take over the planet.

When it rains it pours?

Mankind will out demand its supplies until there is an equalizing effect to balance out humanity (ie- a virus)- with the earths total human population restored to a much less demending role (50% or less current) the earth will start to revive from its losses and regain its position as a host to the species. With the major loss of life, there will be a regiem shift (power struggle) the resulting war(s) shaving off another 5-10% of the earths population (perhaps).

The above situations could also be caused by a pre-cursor natural disaster such as yellowstone's erruption or a meteor. If oen of those two occured it could in theory cause issues easily enough to disturb or cause to go into effect either a new form of virii/bacteria or regenerate an old one (when was the last real good bubonic outbreak?).

In the long run we will die- the sun will melt us when it becomes a giant or a meteor will make swiss cheese out of the earth or the super-caldera valcanos will obliterate an entire continent while plunging half the world in ash and sending into the next ice age (with the ash killing out electrical and mechanical components of the time), or the earth will stop spinning on its axis (which it is slowing down, very very slowly.. but it is none the less)- until the major event, mother nature will provide her checks and balances and mankind is not exempt from her wrath.. though alot of people think they are.

If I may be silly for a moment, I have every finger and most of my toes crossed for a zombie apocalypse. I dont care why, I dont care how, but if I must go I want to go out battling toe to toe with the undead. I dont even know why I had to qualify this with being silly. To hell with silly, that's what I want.

To be more serious, I'd say a disease. I surely hope this isn't a derailer, for it's not my intention and I think applies to the post, but do any of us consider ourselves (humans) to be out of the design of nature? If you were to pick any species on the face of the planet, they are governed by a certain code which keeps them in balance. Too many of any of them will result in a relatively immediate (few years to a decade) restoral of balance. Competition leads to starvations, congregations lead to diseases, and if neither of them work fast enough, being in close proximity to each other which is brought on by too large a population, increases aggresiveness, leading to physical engagements that either weaken or injure enough to at least encourage death. Yet with us, we just grow and grow and cram ourselves together ever more. We beat diseases, we beat age, we beat reasources, etc and so forth, I'd have to think that nature will prevail and kick us in our penicillin filled asses with some super-avian-MRSA-pigflu-instaAIDS-herpa-gingivitus, if only to spite us for daring to breach her doctrine.

That was overly silly, but the question was not. Why are we not held to these same concepts,.......or are we about to be? Hmmm, I think 'lack of resources' just became my final answer....

Lack of resources.

Two Words:

ALIEN INVASION.

And no, I don't from south of the border ...

Sort of like this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORb3zC8z94w

Missed this thread before.

I keep buying the History Channel's "The Universe" pretty cheap on Ebay and am amazed how good it continues to be through season two.

One thing I am picking up on is how dangerous the Universe really is. They talk quite a bit about how Life on Earth could end, all life. Sometimes they say most scenarios are unlikely, but it is an absolute certainty that one day life on Earth will end, and the question just becomes when. The ultimate for sure end is what the Sun will do in its last hurrahs. The series seems to be moving towards concluding something will likely get us before the Sun does, IMO. Maybe they can't say "probably" as oppose to "likely" is all. This made me vote for "natural disaster" and I am thinking of the extraterrestrial kind.

They have covered SETI, and I get the feeling that those folks are puzzled as "there should be civilizations out there millions of years old" and they should be detecting some of them. I am starting to conclude that in any given million year era, those civilizations get wiped out before the era gets too far along. Thus SETI futilely searches; in our day, there just seems to be nothing out there in the way of creatures transmitting radio waves for us to pick up.

I do believe Life is all over the place out there.

PS: the Sun could easily get us before its end stages, anytime, with one of its blasts that most of us know nothing about. Not quite ending "all life" perhaps.
The SETI futility seems to be a statement also about how hard it would be to colonize elsewhere even knowing ultimately it is a "must".

Quote: Face

If I may be silly for a moment, I have every finger and most of my toes crossed for a zombie apocalypse. I dont care why, I dont care how, but if I must go I want to go out battling toe to toe with the undead. I dont even know why I had to qualify this with being silly. To hell with silly, that's what I want.

For personal reasons I really hope for zombie apocalypse. Then all the time wasted watching my beloved zombie movies will not go to waste. I would be king, knowing which resources to hoard and how to set up a fortress. Plus, because of my profession, I know how to pretty much ferment anything so I could make a unlimited supply of safe hydration, as well as keep everyone happy with my potent potables. I can't wait until that day comes.

Quote: odiousgambit

the Sun could easily get us before its end stages, anytime, with one of its blasts that most of us know nothing about.".

In that case, $#%& mowing the lawn.

Quote: AZDuffman

"The Roman Empire wasn't planned, but neither did it 'just happen.'"

apologies for not including you in the quote vote.

Quote: MrV

Two Words:

ALIEN INVASION.

And no, I don't from south of the border ...

Sort of like this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORb3zC8z94w

What did Santa Claus bring this past Christmas?

Quote: odiousgambit

apologies for not including you in the quote vote.

No problem. If anyone cares it comes from STRATFOR, a must-read website.

Quote: JIMMYFOCKER

What did Santa Claus bring this past Christmas?

Actually, he brought a Ferrari 456 GT.

Thanks for asking.

When will it end.. does that mean the human species as it is today, or the end of all life on Earth? Lets just look at all Earth mammals alive today.. that should cover it.

I have deeply studied the physiology of interacting life systems throughout the evolution of life on Earth, and I feel I’m qualified to take this stance.

Life is both resilient and fragile at the same time. It is resilient because it is persistent, but make no mistakes… life is fragile. It has taken billions of years to hone our food chain into its present functioning structure. Millions upon millions of different species have evolved over eons of time by random DNA mutations, and only the best ones have survived and established themselves in the food chain.

My thoughts on “the end”…Although I have no data to prove it, I believe that us mammals will not be able to survive the affects of the onslaught of man-made pollution will bear upon our DNA. Doesn’t anyone realize how fragile it is? Why not… oh… money.

This forum is math-wise, so lets look at it this way: Certain chemicals and radiation have been proven to cause cancer in future generations by damaging our DNA. Over the past 100 years we’ve been drowning ourselves in these chemicals, and we’re just getting started. The damage is world-wide and undeniably proven; our DNA is already corrupted and un-repairable. There is no turning back, it’s already too late.

Evolution could adjust to such changes, BUT NOT IN THIS SHORT OF TIMEFRAME.

Our future generations will not survive these sudden environmental changes because the mutations won’t have enough time to establish themselves as viable species, and we’ll simply all die of cancer and the inability to reproduce, in the meanwhile.

How will it happen? While we’ve been busy exterminating ourselves in chemicals, we’ve also been destroying the food chain from the bottom (plankton) on up. The sea will soon provide no edible food. The few land crops we’ll try to retain will be destroyed because of changes in weather patterns causing infestations.

On top of this, there won’t be enough well people around to keep the world fed.

Those few remaining countries with the most fire-power will seek out and destroy anyone who stands between them and the last scraps of food on earth.

Anarchy will occur, of course, but very soon afterwards, everyone will be dead from cancer and reproductive inability caused by the corruption of our DNA. I think this damage will hit all of the mammals, not just humans… the end of “life”… I don’t think it will even take another 100 years, considering the acceleration of cancer rates and the certain doom it spells.

But don’t worry, life cannot be stopped. Even if every piece of DNA on Earth were destroyed, life will spring fourth again spontaneously from the chemical soup we leave behind. It will start as organic chemical reactions, perhaps around volcanic sea vents; these new molecular structures will compete for resources, the strong will again survive, and before long, evolution will again hone our DNA into a set of inter-dependent species thus creating a new food-chain.

Our species (or something like it) will rise again, and then soon enough, just as fast as we’re doing it now, we will start to communicate and collaborate and figure out the best way to destroy ourselves again.

Life cannot be stopped, and neither can the never-ending suffering of the human soul. Where is God when you really need him to put a stop to the insanity? No where, that’s where. If you believe in re-incarnation, be prepared for an eternity of suffering. Its no wonder babies cry when they’re squeezed into the world. Whoops, looks like I slipped over to the other end of my manic-D. Sorry, but somebody asked “how will it all end?”… what do you expect?

25 years ago, I had a conversation with a doctor buddy of mine. He asked me why it looked like I'm not getting married. I told him EXACTLY what I said above. Glad I never had any kids. He just found out last month that his daugter has terminal brain cancer.

Does Dick Chaney care about stuff like that? Nope. He signed into law a clause that allows anyone to harvest natural gas from our public lands by injecting a toxic mix of chemicals, and this can be done without regards to drinking water. This single act has already exposed of over 40 million Americans to these cancer-causing agents, and he knew it damn well when he signed it. He did it for the money, and no other reason. He sold the lives of millions of Americans for a handfull of dollars. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

Quote: discflicker

This forum is math-wise, so lets look at it this way: Certain chemicals and radiation have been proven to cause cancer in future generations by damaging our DNA.

Well... for one, mutation is natural. So is radiation, and the overwhelming majority we got is from natural sources. There is nothing wrong with having some mutation rate. The failures of DNA randomization may look horrifying, but let's face it, life is not a pink-tinted children's show. Lesser evil.

Quote: discflicker

Over the past 100 years we’ve been drowning ourselves in these chemicals, and we’re just getting started. The damage is world-wide and undeniably proven; our DNA is already corrupted and un-repairable. There is no turning back, it’s already too late.

Really? We're well advanced on the way to decode and map the human genome. In time, we will, it's not a question of whether, but when.

Currently our genetic modification ability is limited to cross-species transfer of individual genes, but even that would be more than enough to 'repair' the genome (by replacing "damaged" genes with ones from clean individuals from uncontacted tribes that still exist). Wouldn't be hard to permanently archive some samples either, in fact we already have clean samples in storage.

In some time, it will advance. While still TRL1-TRL2, there already are technologies that will allow for essentially at-will DNA modification. Editing it like a program source code. Certainly, concessions will have to be made. Unless we find a cure for religion, it may even completely stall the progress in most nations, but others will break through nonetheless.

I am not so worried about an end of species calamity, as I am of a castrophic event. If you look at this link World Population Summary of the International Data Base (IDB) at the census bureau site, then look at the graphs of World Population Growth Rates: 1950-2050 or of Annual World Population Change: 1950-2050 in percentages. See the catastrophic drop in population affecting tens of millions of people in 1960.

When I first saw those graphs, I assumed that it was a mistake, since how could so many people have died around 1960 and I didn't know what had happened. The scale of death rivaled the world wars, or in absolute numbers the black death in Europe in the 14th century. Do you know what it was that happened around 1960?

Nothing on that scale has occurred in the the last 50 years, but I think that it very easily could happen on a moment's notice.

P90

This is EXACTLY the kind of response I expect to hear from a 12 year old dreamer, but not from anyone REALISTIC. PLEASE think about what you’re saying...

“OK, we have damaged DNA, but we should be able to repair it just in time, so we don’t need to worry about pollution and radiation.”

Is that what you're saying?

Quote: pacomartin

Do you know what it was that happened around 1960?

Nothing on that scale has occurred in the the last 50 years, but I think that it very easily could happen on a moment's notice.

If its abortion, then yes, that's one good way to try to EXTEND our time on Earth.

Lets not take this conversation to the area of religeion, its just a big huge wast of time.

If that is where your heading, if you think that God will save humanity, then I accuse you of being part of the problem, not the solution. Even if your right and God will save us all, does that mean we should pollute the land and poison the animals? Its the exact same thing as those who do it just for the money. Cash in while they wait for God? SCUM!

Quote: discflicker

“OK, we have damaged DNA, but we should be able to repair it just in time, so we don’t need to worry about pollution and radiation.”
Is that what you're saying?

First of all, I don't think we have damaged DNA - not to a significantly greater extent that is normal in nature. Haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.

And if the potential harm is expected to unveil in generations (because it certainly isn't now), then yes, by that time it won't be not even impossible, but even difficult to correct it. We already have achieved cloning of large mammals. The only thing stopping us from doing that with humans is religion, i.e. we believe it is for some reason any more wrong to clone a human than it is to clone another animal. If we managed to cure religion, human cloning would be widely experimented with already.

And with that, we could always take a number of well-preserved "clean" samples and revert the next generation to them. There is well enough to preserve adequate diversity. But cloning is peanuts, because with genetic engineering, which we already routinely do on plants, it's possible and trivial to preserve the diversity while replacing the genes that you believe have gone "wrong". Potentially, even will be feasible to preserve legal parents' emotionally valued inconsequential genetic traits (eye color, face shape, etc) while using a high quality genetic material template for important traits.

Not that I think there is a need for any of that, not as of yet at least.

Quote: discflicker

Does Dick Chaney care about stuff like that? Nope. He signed into law a clause that allows anyone to harvest natural gas from our public lands by injecting a toxic mix of chemicals, and this can be done without regards to drinking water. This single act has already exposed of over 40 million Americans to these cancer-causing agents, and he knew it damn well when he signed it. He did it for the money, and no other reason. He sold the lives of millions of Americans for a handfull of dollars. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

I wonder exactly when Dick Cheney became the Antichrist to the left wing. All that aside, how can you be certain that "he did it for the money"? Is that because evil Republicans only think of that and nothing else, and would sell their own mothers if there was money in it? (And don't forget the part about them roasting and eating babies.)

I am truly puzzled why an essentially powerless man could plausibly be blamed for all the ills in the universe.