How will the world end?

AzH

AzH

Legacy Member
I have a fascination with the end of the world, and often dream up scenarios of how we may see armageddon (and how the future world will exist post-armageddon). Mostly, we end up in some dystopian police state. :D

How do you think the end of the world will come about? From an asteroid slamming into us, or will we eventually nuke/poison our planet?
 
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Our planet is destined for destruction from mankind. There is no doubt that we as a species are horrible parasites that need removed from the face of this planet. Not to mention the human race is more of a mistake than anything. So, I see one day the Earth correcting its mistake. Be it by natural or human causes I am sure we will have a hand in destroying ourselves and the world as we know it. Though, we do move closer and closer to 2012. And many people believe that it marks the beginning of the end. Even the US government has hopped on that bandwagon building underground bunkers across the US.

So, who knows what will happen. Predicting the future is best left to those who believe it is possible. Though, I do fear one day sooner than later we will set in motion the end of our race if we have not done so already.
 
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...but is it possible for mankind to destroy something as huge and resilient as the earth? Do we have enough capability to wipre out all life on earth?

I know the claims are that we have enough bombs to kill everyone on the planet many times over, but I think we need to consider the resourcefulness, resilience, and survivability of man. We rose to be the dominant species on the planet. That ingenuity must count for something.
 
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AzH said:
...but is it possible for mankind to destroy something as huge and resilient as the earth? Do we have enough capability to wipre out all life on earth?

I know the claims are that we have enough bombs to kill everyone on the planet many times over, but I think we need to consider the resourcefulness, resilience, and survivability of man. We rose to be the dominant species on the planet. That ingenuity must count for something.
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One does not have to completely annihilate the planet to destroy the world. We destroy the world on a daily basis, but to destroy the world as we know it, I see that very doable. We are quite capable of destroying or seriously depleting our species. And if you think about it mankind are the only animals on this planet capable of making ourselves extinct without help. That alone should tell you something. And I assure you we are not the dominant species on this planet. There are many things that have been here long before us and will be long after us. We like to think we are the top of the food chain but we are capable of being brought down by small unseen threats such as a deadly virus.

Not to mention in other animals natural habitat(I speak of predators of course) we are on most of occasions without hope. If you are lost in the jungle there is a very reasonable chance that you will not make it out alive. The same with a desert. We are just another animal on this forsaken piece of rock. Thinking you are better or we(mankind) are better is part of the problem. And I think a very large factor in why we will one day cease to exist.
 
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I think we're more advanced and therefore more dominant. We colonised the entire planet except for the deepest parts of the ocean. We developed language, art, world wide communications. There are other species, many species that are more hardy and survivable than we are, and rats/cockroaches will out live our species if there is a major calamity. But to claim any other species on the planet is more dominant than us is close-minded.
 
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AzH said:
I think we're more advanced and therefore more dominant. We colonised the entire planet except for the deepest parts of the ocean. We developed language, art, world wide communications. There are other species, many species that are more hardy and survivable than we are, and rats/cockroaches will out live our species if there is a major calamity. But to claim any other species on the planet is more dominant than us is close-minded.
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I think the complete opposite, to believe that mankind is the most dominant is close minded in my opinion. And the fact that we must continue to invent and develop things proves it. We can not leave well enough along. Look at the animals of the world. They live within their means and are happy with what they have. Mankind must have more always more more more. That is where we fail as a species and will never be able to find inner peace and tranquility. But, the animals, they have that. They are one with who and what they are, I envy that in many ways
 
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Mankind will be it's own demise. The things we do to this planet and the resources on it is mind boggling. I don't think we have to worry about meteors hitting us. Acid rain, pollution, deterioration of the ozone, etc (all of which we could have prevented) will bring us our Armageddon.
 
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I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree :) Because to me, inner peace and tranqulity is not the be all and end all of existence.

nacho said:
That is where we fail as a species and will never be able to find inner peace and tranquility. But, the animals, they have that. They are one with who and what they are, I envy that in many ways
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If all we wanted was inner peace and tranquility, think of the things we would not have. I most certainly would not be having this conversation with you in cyberspace. It is man's destructive selfish nature which has brought us so many advancements. In technology, medicine, language, art.
 
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AzH said:
If all we wanted was inner peace and tranquility, think of the things we would not have. I most certainly would not be having this conversation with you in cyberspace. It is man's destructive selfish nature which has brought us so many advancements. In technology, medicine, language, art.
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That's true, but it is our choice how we carry out and manage those advances. As a whole, we have made some terrible mistakes that it may be too late to try to fix.
 
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AzH said:
I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree :) Because to me, inner peace and tranqulity is not the be all and end all of existence.



If all we wanted was inner peace and tranquility, think of the things we would not have. I most certainly would not be having this conversation with you in cyberspace. It is man's destructive selfish nature which has brought us so many advancements. In technology, medicine, language, art.
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But, here is the question. Are these advances truly necessary? With advancement we destroy more than we create. If you never knew of a computer would you miss it? Of course not. And I would not throw away inner peace and tranquility like it means nothing. It is what we all worship and search for in our lives. Why do you think we have religion? Why do you think we have hope? Why do you think we have God? We all long for the day when we feel no more pain and are at peace. We long to believe in a life after death in which we find that peace. And I believe if you ever experienced such things you would not dismiss them so lightly. Everyone wants it. Why should we have to die to find it? There are tribes of people that live out in places that have never seen technology. They have no medicine. They have no electricity and they have managed to survive for 1000s of years.
 
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If you never lived, would you miss it? Of course not! But it is in our nature; be that genetically or just through generations of psychological conditioning to strive for improvement in the life we are given. It is not something we can walk away from so easily. Do not get me wrong. I am not arguing that the human race is the pinnacle of all that is good in the world. We're the most destructive, selfish, damaging species in existence; that EVER existed. But we're not all monsters, and to tarnish the human race with that carte blanche accusation is unfair.

Why do we have religion? It's a method of control.
Why do we have hope? Because without hope there is nothing but despair.
Why do we have God? We don't. He's a made up fictional character that lives in the sky.

If we all long for the day that we feel no more pain and are at peace, that why are we all not dead yet? Because oblivion is the only place you'll find that. Suicide is the only rapid solution; not that I'm condoning taking your own life, or the life of anyone else for that matter. I don't believe in life after death. I believe in nothing after death which means I want to make the most of my time on this earth. Modern medicine means I'm probably going to live longer and have a better quality of life than my ancestors. That is an advancement.
 
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AzH said:
If we all long for the day that we feel no more pain and are at peace, that why are we all not dead yet? .
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And in that question you have proven my point. Why do you insist that we must be dead to find this great tranquil peace? If you take the time in life and ignore all the "advancements" you can find somewhere/someone in this crazy world that gives you this great inner peace. And that is far more valuable than anything this planet has to offer. Now, just think about how hard it is to do so in today's world? It is nearly impossible, because there is so much going on and so much to do. But, back then when it was us and the stars, imagine how easy it was?

And that is another thing, if you can not understand what I mean then think about the stars. How many people know what it is like to truly lay under the stars and enjoy their immense beauty? If you have grown up in one of our advanced cities, you may have never seen more than 10 to 20 stars at once in your entire life. You have to go somewhere completely void of technology and advancement to experience something that is so peaceful. And to make it even worse, the view is free. If you can find somewhere to view it..
 
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Fortunately I've had the chance to grow up somewhere semi rural and have travelled to 6 of the 7 continents I've seen great beauty and I've found 'locational' peace. But life is hard. Life is pain. Illness plagues us. Pain is one of the first instinctive lessons we learn. You will never find the 'day that we feel no more pain' until you're dead. You may think you have found some spiritual peace, but unfortunately you are fighting against the rest of humanity; most of whom do not give one tiny piece of shit about your peace. You won't find true peace until you're dead. You won't find freedom from pain until you are dead. You may think you have found peace, and you may be content with the level of peace that you have attained, but, as Santayana said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war". Only the dead have found peace.

I'm enjoying this debate with you. Thank you for not getting personal. :) Play on!
 
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AzH said:
Fortunately I've had the chance to grow up somewhere semi rural and have travelled to 6 of the 7 continents I've seen great beauty and I've found 'locational' peace. But life is hard. Life is pain. Illness plagues us. Pain is one of the first instinctive lessons we learn. You will never find the 'day that we feel no more pain' until you're dead. You may think you have found some spiritual peace, but unfortunately you are fighting against the rest of humanity; most of whom do not give one tiny piece of shit about your peace. You won't find true peace until you're dead. You won't find freedom from pain until you are dead. You may think you have found peace, and you may be content with the level of peace that you have attained, but, as Santayana said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war". Only the dead have found peace.

I'm enjoying this debate with you. Thank you for not getting personal. :) Play on!
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I always enjoy a nice intellectual debate about things. There is no need to be or get personal in a logical debate. It is the illogical debates in which people get offended and draw lines. But, I agree not many people care about that type of peace or know what it even is for that matter. But, I have hopes for our species that maybe enough will wake up in time and realize what is going on around them and do something about it before it is too late. I know it is a small hope, but someone has to dream. Without the dreams we are pretty much all just waiting to die.

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy
 
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I think the world as we know could end with global warming, but it would never wipe out the whole population to the point of extinction. The most likely must be the sun imploding or the earth getting hit a by an asteroid. Alien invasion?
 
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I suppose that the world must eventually end. As with all matter, the earth is constantly losing energy. Eventually it will reach thermal zero. However, I don't think that this is likely to happen anytime soon. I don't think that any of us will live to see the end of the earth. What I would be more worried about is political/economic instability leading to a global decline in out standard of living, which could eventually lead to shorter life or even death via starvation, infection, etc.

Until about the 1980s or 1990s, the world created wealth through manufacturing tangible goods and products. The Industrial Revolution greatly enhanced the standard of living. However, in the 1990s, most of the world's largest companies abandoned a manufacturing-driven market in favor of an information-driven market. Our primary source of wealth is no longer coal mining, steel production, agricultural equipment, etc., but rather financial speculation, information technology, and intellectual property. The problem with this model is that it is more vulnerable to threat and theft. For example, it is much easier for a hacker in Russia to steal a good idea from a U.S. IT company than it is for him/her to steal a steel production plant in the U.S. There's a lot of instability associated with our current system.
 
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I honestly would be more worried about extinction via comet or asteroid. There is one that is going to come very close to Earth in 2029. And they have no one working on any preventive methods. I saw on a show that two astronauts were working on theories of how to stop it, but other than that no serious research is being done by any government.

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There is the projected path. The 2029 event will be the closest brush by a good-sized asteroid known to occur. The rock will pass Earth inside the orbits of some satellites. No other asteroid has ever been clearly visible to the unaided eye. The asteroid is roughly estimated to be a little more than 1,000 feet (320 meters) wide. It will make a return trip back in 2036. The slightest change in trajectory could send it directly at Earth. That does not mean it will hit Earth, but you never know what could happen. It is definitely something to keep an eye on in the future.
 
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Haha i've seen a similar post or something in many other forums ... I dunno really how will the world end .. .but if i were to decide i would let it end by crushing it like a watermelon ... haha :P
 
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