BBC Charts The Far Future of Collapsed Civilization, Changing Universe

roseofbattle

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Apr 18, 2011
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BBC Charts The Far Future of Collapsed Civilization, Changing Universe

There are many chances for the Earth to perish in the far off years to come.

Long, long after we've all passed our expiration dates, buildings will decay, a global disaster will wreck Earth, men will go extinct, the Sun will evolve into a red giant, and the Earth will die. BBC Future has created a timeline of possible events from one thousand years from now to one hundred quintillion years from now.

BBC called the infographic its "most ambitious set of predictions yet," drawing research from NASA, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and many others. A windy timeline labels each event as it pertains to the Earth, humanity, and "the heavens," or space. Marked with a circle, the size of the circle indicates the magnitude of the event with larger circles having a higher impact.

The timeline begins with predicts of what will happen 1,000 years from now. BBC anticipates most words will have gone extinct by this time "due to the rapid evolution of languages." Similarly, around this time all builds will have decayed if civilization by this point has collapsed. Carbon dioxide will be sticking around for a while; 29% of carbon dioxide released before 2100 will still be around in 3000. In another thousand years, the Greenland ice will have melted due to extreme global warning, causing seas levels to raise six meters higher.

In one billion years, there isn't going to be much of anything on the planet that's stuck around thanks to the Sun causing the Earth's surface temperature to rise to 47 degrees Celsius (116 degrees Fahrenheit), meaning oceans will evaporate and creating an atmosphere akin to a moist greenhouse. Life will completely die out later when the surface temperature reaches 147 degrees Celsius (297 degrees Fahrenheit).

But life will go on elsewhere. The sun will exhaust its hydrogen and begin to evolve into a red giant five billion years from now, becoming a black dwarf and invisible to human eyes (if they still existed) in the next nine billion years. By 20 billion years, it's entirely possible that the universe ends as all matter is torn apart by the universe's expansion making all distances infinite.

If by some stroke of luck for the Earth and it has not been consumed by the Sun at 5.4 billion years, the Earth's orbit will throw itself into the sun in one hundred quintillion years. There's a lot of other possible happenings to the universe listed in the BBC's timeline; check out the whole infographic at BBC. [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140105-timeline-of-the-far-future]

Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140105-timeline-of-the-far-future]


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Remus

Reprogrammed Spambot
Nov 24, 2012
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At all of these moments one might be able to pick out a little blue phone box there to observe, but not interfere (yeah right). Each of these events could somehow be traced back to the Doctor's presence, or perhaps his absence.
 

Tom Artingstall

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Sep 23, 2011
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The grand irony is that you can't view that link from the UK.

<Desperately hunts through BBC's UK website for this article>

EDIT: Here you go my fellow Limeys!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc.com/future/bespoke/20140107-far-future/assets/images/far-future-timeline.png
 

frobalt

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Jan 2, 2012
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Tom Artingstall said:
The grand irony is that you can't view that link from the UK.

<Desperately hunts through BBC's UK website for this article>
I am seething with rage at this development.

Does the fact that it's international mean it is only accessible to those outside the UK?
 

Tom Artingstall

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Sep 23, 2011
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I am seething with rage at this development.

Does the fact that it's international mean it is only accessible to those outside the UK?
Short answer: Yes. Good news is I found the link. See above.
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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roseofbattle said:
The timeline begins with predicts of what will happen 1,000 years from now. BBC anticipates most words will have gone extinct by this time "due to the rapid evolution of languages." Similarly, around this time all builds will have decayed if civilization by this point has collapsed.
Er...you mean that there won't be any buildings that last more than 1,000 years after civilisation ends?

What about the buildings that have lasted longer than that which don't get much maintenance? The pyramids have got along just fine. Sure, not shiny and new, and people have nicked the outer surfaces close to the base, but they are still pyramids.
 

Gary Thompson

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Aug 29, 2011
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How does the Y chromosome weaken?

Also by AD 5,000,000 I would have suspected we'd be arrogant ascended being douchebags.
 

Jadak

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Nov 4, 2008
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thaluikhain said:
roseofbattle said:
The timeline begins with predicts of what will happen 1,000 years from now. BBC anticipates most words will have gone extinct by this time "due to the rapid evolution of languages." Similarly, around this time all builds will have decayed if civilization by this point has collapsed.
Er...you mean that there won't be any buildings that last more than 1,000 years after civilisation ends?

What about the buildings that have lasted longer than that which don't get much maintenance? The pyramids have got along just fine. Sure, not shiny and new, and people have nicked the outer surfaces close to the base, but they are still pyramids.
You apparently missed some points on the timeline. It specifically mentions the pyramids later on under 'monuments'. Short version, large stone structures will stick around a while longer.
 

Bvenged

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Sep 4, 2009
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We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee.
What? Are you serious BBC? What is this madness?
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Gary Thompson said:
Also by AD 5,000,000 I would have suspected we'd be arrogant ascended being douchebags.
I never did like those guys.


Just call ascended beings "Team Useless".

Anyway, I have one question and I think it's on all of our minds: Will there be Morlocks?
 

Kenjitsuka

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Sep 10, 2009
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"The stars will look different, because the Earth has moved"....
Except, you will have not seen any stars for ages, because of (light) pollution, but the satellites asure me they are just awesome.

"Life will completely die out later when the surface temperature reaches 147 degrees Celsius (297 degrees Fahrenheit)."
What about all that life at super hot deep sea vents? Like 400 C, no?
 

BoogieManFL

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Apr 14, 2008
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Kenjitsuka said:
"Life will completely die out later when the surface temperature reaches 147 degrees Celsius (297 degrees Fahrenheit)."
What about all that life at super hot deep sea vents? Like 400 C, no?
By then, the oceans would have evaporated due to the high temperatures. Presumably all ocean life will have perished without the water, no matter what their temperature tolerance was.