Which major disaster will wipe out homo sapiens first???

Question

The next evolution of humans???
Impact from some other object from space???
Alien invasion (for those that believe)???
Major disease epidemic???
War (possibly nuclear)???
or Other???

Answer 1

i would say nuclear war

Answer 2

Probability #1 - an impact from space. Probability #2 - the eruption of one of the active megavolcanoes such as yellowstone. Probability #3 - Nuclear War. Probability #4 - Religion. Beyond that i can't say. I would like to clear up one thing though. The "next evolution" is a bad example. Evolution takes place over such a long period of time and at such small incriments that we wouldn't even notice the change. Every new generation is the "next evolution" in one way or another. Evolution is not a threat to the species.

Answer 3

It has got to be a major disease outbreak - and the worst thing is that we are the reason for it. If it wasn't for humans developing vacines for diseases, anti-bacterial soaps and penicilin for common colds, our immune systems would be alot more resiliant to disease.

For example - small pox. A vacine was created and a campain put in place to erradicate smallpox forever. In 1971, the WHO declared that it was done - no more smallpox in the wild. Then years later a single sailor caught it from somewhere in outlying indonesia and brought it back to europe, where he infected hundreds of people with it. The kicker was that because it had been erradicated for so long, nobody had any real immunity to it, and so the virus became alot more deadly - killing almost every person who caught it.

Even worse than that though is that even though all stocks were ordered to be eradicated, the CDC in the USA and the Russian Institute for virus preperations still have live samples. Yes - they are kept under armed guard, but why keep it? If it kills so badly why not destroy it?

Both USA and Russia have said it is kept for research purposes only, but i somehow sense it is more of a mistrust thing from the cold war days.

Answer 4

Evolution most likely. We'll all grow really hairy and turn into monkeys. Why not?!? Although we grew from chimps it could always work the other way round.

Another possibility is this: First there were single-celled organisms, then these slowly evolved over millions of years into much bigger creatures called Dinosaurs. For some reason nature changed her mind about the size of her animals. So animals began to shrink in size. As time has gone by, there have been more and more bacteria and viruses. Millions of years from now there will once again only be single-celled organisms alive. Then natures cycle of life will start all over again.

Answer 5

I'd say ask a fortune teller ;)
How on earth should anyone be able to guess? We are a damned abundant species, and it's really hard to wipe out a population of more than 6 billion, whats more, with cool technology, raincoats and a global distribution. Any impact would have to shatter the whole planet to do that :/ And besides, currently I can see nothing on this earth that REALLY threatens to wipe us out... So trying to guess what will cause the extinction of H. sapiens seems about as easy (and as meaningful) as trying to guess next week's lottery numbers...
Nevertheless I'm pretty sure that we won't last forever :)

Answer 6

I think the simplest answer is - nothing.

Mass extinctions have happened to species in the past, but we are not like other animals. Our intelligence and technology give us a fantastic ability to adapt to our environment - we can even live in *space* for example!

Therefore, I think that the only thing that could wipe us out would be some catastrophic change that would completely wipe out one of our three basic needs for survival - either food, water or oxygen. The loss of one of those three things would spell the end for us, but for all other land-based animal life as well.

Since I can't imagine a possible cause for such a catastrophe, I think we're going to go on forever!

As for your suggestions...

Evolution is driven by changes in environment that force living things to change to adapt, or die out. We control our environment to such an extent that I don't think humans are going to evolve any further.

Space impact. The objects whizzing around our solar system are being monitored, so there is no way that a planet killer could "creep up on us". We'd spot it in plenty of time, and so far out that a minute change in its trajectory would make it miss us by a huge margin. Never going to happen.

Alien Invasion. Um? Well, I suppose they could turn up tomorrow and wipe us all out, but somehow I doubt it.

Major disease. shauny2807 above talked about this and what he said is correct, but no disease could wipe us *all* out. Some would eventually build up a resistance to it (Haven't some babies now been born from HIV sufferers that are immune to HIV?).

War. Again, no war, even a nuclear one, would ever wipe us *all* out.

Nope, all things considered, I think we're going to be around forever! :)

Answer 7

first comes first.people who have "home land security" love will be wiped out first.that would probably be half the population which would probably leave china and a few people.then with our disease prone bodies and bacterial mutataion those few who are not chinese will spread the disease to china and a major disease epidemic wil almost wipe them out then they will evolve.after that the brain size would be smaller so their heads will be smaller and new technology present.which means more war.but we will never wipe our selves out.we will simply die out due to global warming.

Answer 8

My money is on either the small pox virus, cus you just know that those communists were trading it like currency during the cold war, and now they are gone the facilities are up for sale. Or the bible belt of America, anyone who believes religion and guns mix well is asking for a whole load of pain.

Answer 9

Genetically modified food cross pollinating with wild inedible plants. Result, mass starvation, food wars (for what little will be left) and mass epidemics.

Answer 10

If another member of the Bush family gets elected to The Whitehouse

Answer 11

It will be a natural disaster, like a giant tsunami or an all-destroying earthquake. Quick, but painful.