Why the world won't end in your life time.

[Not G. Ivingname]

The end of the world is something that fascinated the human race for eons. Why we put so much work into knowing how it all will end. Angry god, meteor, alien invasion, it all come form the great desire to know our own destruction. However, to put it bluntly, we are not going to witness the end in our life times.

1. 2012 being the "end of days" is not true: I really hope I don't have to make this point again. Their been dozens of threads on this site explain in detail why the Mayans, the bible, and everything else that says "the world will end on 2012" is wrong.

2. As a rule of thumb, doom's day prophecies are wrong in general: There was a prediction that on the Jewish feast day, the world would meet Rapture, from a complicated theory made up from an upcoming Israeli peace treaty, and the bilbical 14,000 long generation. The dates were between 1998-2005. Look around and you will see we trip over tales of the end on a pretty much daily. We been tripping for a quite awhile. Why should any tale of doom hold any credit?

3. Every generation has thought of them selves as the "last" generation: Go back through time, and any major flood, earthquake, or bad streak of crops was called the "sign of end days." The followers of Jesus preached that the end would come soon, and again at the turn of the first millenia, saying that christ would return to destroy the wicked and save the holy. Since the world is still here, it is proof positive that they were wrong. It is just human nature to be scared of the end, or more correctly, OUR end. I don't claim to understand the human mind, I don't, but I would say that knowing that we go out with a bang is more comforting then just dying from Old age alone in our home.

 

[capin Rob]

Disscusion Value?

This is just a well put together rant

OT: Yes, We will not see the end of days, We all just over react, The world WILL end, however, In Billions of yeasrs when the Sun Stops burning and it does super Nova and takes us with it.

 

[open trap]

I rather die in a really cool way before i get old and die from old age or some slow painful medical complication. make my death instant and totally awsome.

 

[Necator15]

Disscusion Value?

This is just a well put together rant

OT: Yes, We will not see the end of days, We all just over react, The world WILL end, however, In Billions of yeasrs when the Sun Stops burning and it does super Nova and takes us with it.

Our sun can't supernova, way too small. It'll expand drastically in about 5 billion years though as it turns into a red giant, and swallow up Earth(kinda).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Life_cycle


The end of the world will probably come from the inevitable heat-death of the universe, and I have no idea when this will be. Probably several million trillion years down the line. Entropy's a *****.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

My reason was that we as a species might be quick at damaging things, but we're still brilliantly inefficient.

 

[Queen Michael]

I believe that mankind will survive for millennia, perhaps thousands of millenia. Why? Because while killing a lot of us might not be that tricky, killing every single one of us is so difficult that nobody and nothing has ever been able to pull it off.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

I believe that mankind will survive for millennia, perhaps thousands of millenia. Why? Because while killing a lot of us might not be that tricky, killing every single one of us is so difficult that nobody and nothing has ever been able to pull it off.

Just pray that no one launch any nukes. *cause if that happens, we're all pretty fucked.

If the initial detonations does't kill you, the resulting fallout will. And even if you somehow managed to hide away in a nuclear fallout shelter, you'll probably die of either starvation or thirst since neither your water nor food supply is likely to last the period of time needed to stay in hiding until all the lethal radiation levels outside have all passed.

The scenario in games like "Fallout" only works if you have thr sci-fi tech to create new food and water out of... Well I don't know what the hell the inhabitants of the vaults use to get their food and water while being shut inside the vault at the same time, and this during the span of several generations. They kind of forgot to adress that little issue during the series.

But we do not have that technology yet, so in the case of nuclear war, we'll probably die out as a species.

 

[SturmDolch]

Disscusion Value?

I think it's pretty obvious that we're discussing "Why the world won't end in your life time". Do you need a question at the end of a post to tell you exactly what you should be discussing?

OT: Yes, We will not see the end of days, We all just over react, The world WILL end, however, In Billions of yeasrs when the Sun Stops burning and it does super Nova and takes us with it.

Ok I guess you don't. So what was the point of asking where the discussion value is, when you can obviously see it yourself?

OT: I definitely hope we don't. Considering there's a billion things in the Universe that could destroy us at this very moment, I try to live every day like my last. I mean, if the world doesn't explode, a car could crash and kill me just as easily. Actually, that's probably a lot more probable.

 

[eruwenfuin]

because those doomsday people can't calculate.

Of course it all depends on how you interpret the word world and what particular philosophical ideas you connect to it. I mean technically speaking I will see the end of my world, being the world interpreted and felt/seen etc. by me, but then again that cannot really be said to happen in my "lifetime" seeing as how it will coincide with the end of said lifetime. And if that is the case then technically nobody will see the world end in their life time, seeing as how when the world ends everybody's lifetime also ends. Rather abruptly I'd imagine, but that depends on the question of what the world ending exactly entails....

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Uh, I didn't think it would end in my lifetime.

Unless, of course, I'm still alive when we perfect the synthetic-body-with-human-brain-in-it technique, granting the user immortality.

Cause when that ship comes in, I'm jumping the fuck on board.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

because those doomsday people can't calculate.

Of course it all depends on how you interpret the word world and what particular philosophical ideas you connect to it. I mean technically speaking I will see the end of my world, being the world interpreted and felt/seen etc. by me, but then again that cannot really be said to happen in my "lifetime" seeing as how it will coincide with the end of said lifetime. And if that is the case then technically nobody will see the world end in their life time, seeing as how when the world ends everybody's lifetime also ends. Rather abruptly I'd imagine, but that depends on the question of what the world ending exactly entails....

Well, unless you leave the planet and see it blow up.

 

[Space Spoons]

I completely agree. Although, I do believe the Internet will end in my lifetime. At least, the Internet as we know it today, free, neutral and essentially the Wild West in digital form.

 

[Kollega]

I rather die in a really cool way before i get old and die from old age or some slow painful medical complication. make my death instant and totally awsome.

This man has just said why exactly people always think about the apocalypse. Everyone would prefer death to be quick and painful rather than slow and painful.

OT: The only two possibilities are global thermonuclear war and an asteroid impact (which are basically the same in terms of effect). Everything else would simply be a temporary setback.

 

[Shockolate]

We probably worry about it so much because we don't want it to happen.

I mean, sure, there are people who I will describe as "eccentric" who think 2012 is really the end, or global warming will kill us all in the next 20 years, or some shenanigans, I don't know.

But for everyone one of them, there are thousands more who desperately don't want these things to happen. We want to know of such events, so we can prepare accordingly to try to survive. Or just give up and die, whatever floats your boat.

 

[PessimistOwl]

First of all, you're right. We cannot PREDICT the end of the Earth. That doesn't necessarily mean that it won't occur in our lifetimes. Let's look at it this way

First of all, as far as planets go, we are pretty lucky. Meteorites either burn up in our atmosphere or, known to date, have not been big enough to obliterate the entire planet. This does not mean that it cannot happen however. If you are one of those people that think that a meteorite wiped out the dinosaurs then you very well know that this is a very possible mean to an end.

Next, you have Yellowstone. This has been proven to actually being a HUGE volcanic caldera. While it is unlikely that this "supervolcanoe" could erupt, it is still possible. An eruption from this would theoretically be big enough to destroy all life on the planet. (Fun fact: the second leading theory in the destruction of the dinosaurs was a huge volcano eruption, although this is less likely to have happened than the meteorite theory, it is still very plausible).

Next you have the pole shift theory which, if correct, is due at any moment. I really don't know much about this other than this would be a change that would be more cataclysmic than any natural change in the Earth. Like I said, I don't know much about this one yet, I know enough to say that this would cause a series of completely fatal incidents on the Earth.

Next you have our freshwater supply. Last I learned of it, the amount of natural, drinkable water was only about 2%. If this were to go away, then all hell would break loose over water. However, I have thought a lot of this one and while it most likely will happen, it can also be pretty easily fixed. I can't be too sure however, I think we already have technology that can purify salt water. And there may be other ways to fix this that I cannot think of.

Finally you have the "coup de grace" of all ending, which is the impending nova that our sun will most assuredly experience within a couple of billion years. However, we will be long dead by then. There are many different stages in the life cycle of a sun. Some of those stages showing that the sun will increase in size. Considering this, the sun would first ultimately make it uninhabitable by the time it exploded. (also, I think this sun will only nova, not supernova. There is a difference).

In my opinion, I'm not afraid of extinction at all. If you are to look at the evolutionary chart, you would see that extinction is actually completely natural. Example: In the end of the permian era, 90% of all creatures went extinct. And that's not the only time, Extinction is natural and something that is just like life itself. It's going to happen, and when it does it will no longer matter.

Also
Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/index.html This one is a evolutionary timeline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_pole_shift_hypothesis pole shift theory, read it yourself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera Look at the link

Anyway, just figured a long rant would help out

 

[Fenreil]

Well, as far as religious end of the world scenarios go, Catholics(of which I am one of am) believe that no one knows when the world will end. Even Jesus said that only the Father knows. He then related to us that we should remain ever vigilant for the end of days, but not ignore the world in the process. The Jews of this time promptly ignored this after His death and decided that the world was going to end really soon, and stopped helping out other people. Then everybody got real creative with the end of the world stuff.

As for physical end of the world stuff, I've decided to ignore it. Worrying isn't gonna stop giant meteors or volcanoes, after all.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

First of all, you're right. We cannot PREDICT the end of the Earth. That doesn't necessarily mean that it won't occur in our lifetimes. Let's look at it this way

First of all, as far as planets go, we are pretty lucky. Meteorites either burn up in our atmosphere or, known to date, have not been big enough to obliterate the entire planet. This does not mean that it cannot happen however. If you are one of those people that think that a meteorite wiped out the dinosaurs then you very well know that this is a very possible mean to an end.

Next, you have Yellowstone. This has been proven to actually being a HUGE volcanic caldera. While it is unlikely that this "supervolcanoe" could erupt, it is still possible. An eruption from this would theoretically be big enough to destroy all life on the planet. (Fun fact: the second leading theory in the destruction of the dinosaurs was a huge volcano eruption, although this is less likely to have happened than the meteorite theory, it is still very plausible).

Next you have the pole shift theory which, if correct, is due at any moment. I really don't know much about this other than this would be a change that would be more cataclysmic than any natural change in the Earth. Like I said, I don't know much about this one yet, I know enough to say that this would cause a series of completely fatal incidents on the Earth.

Next you have our freshwater supply. Last I learned of it, the amount of natural, drinkable water was only about 2%. If this were to go away, then all hell would break loose over water. However, I have thought a lot of this one and while it most likely will happen, it can also be pretty easily fixed. I can't be too sure however, I think we already have technology that can purify salt water. And there may be other ways to fix this that I cannot think of.

Finally you have the "coup de grace" of all ending, which is the impending nova that our sun will most assuredly experience within a couple of billion years. However, we will be long dead by then. There are many different stages in the life cycle of a sun. Some of those stages showing that the sun will increase in size. Considering this, the sun would first ultimately make it uninhabitable by the time it exploded. (also, I think this sun will only nova, not supernova. There is a difference).

In my opinion, I'm not afraid of extinction at all. If you are to look at the evolutionary chart, you would see that extinction is actually completely natural. Example: In the end of the permian era, 90% of all creatures went extinct. And that's not the only time, Extinction is natural and something that is just like life itself. It's going to happen, and when it does it will no longer matter.

Also
Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/index.html This one is a evolutionary timeline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_pole_shift_hypothesis pole shift theory, read it yourself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera Look at the link

Anyway, just figured a long rant would help out

Don't worry, the only one of those we really have to worry about is the Yellowstone Valcano. That one is real threat, but in all likely hood our species would find ways to survive the climate changes it would cause. The chance of a Meteor hitting is slim, and grows smalled every day as the space junk clumps together, gets flung into the out edge of our solar system, or gets taken by other, bigger planets.

Pole reversals have happened several times since the birth of humanity (but before the invention of the compass, why nobody has noticed it), but all it causes is a minor increase in direct solar exposure for a little time afterwards and confuse anybody holding a compass during the shift.

Freshwater is only 2%, but there is a LOT of water on this planet. Even if we somehow use up a constantly renuined supply from rain, converting salt into fresh water can be done.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Correct. I agree with you here, and furthermore I wish people would understand what that implies. We will all be long dead before something like climate change brings our species to an end. We will know nothing of regardless of how it happens.