Do you think we'll ever become extinct?

Question

Or do you think we'll advance our technology great enough to travel to distant habital planets before our planet is destroyed or uninhabitable?

Answer 1

i think we will become extinct if we dont do something about global warming.... and maybe Iran's nuclear weapons are a problem too.

whats the Future Posth... guy talking about? global warming would also be the end of humans. and CANNOT be compared with fall of Rome or other examples he said. because global warming applies to the WHOLE world. fall of rome only applied to roman empire and didnt "end" civilization. it just split up the areas. civilization means that people have communication, transportation, trade, and arent nomadic. with global warming, the temperatures will rise too fast for us to evolve in order to support the high temperatures. what does that have to do with civilization?? sure, it will throw off the infrastructure for a while cuz of hurricanes and etc. but in the end, its our capability to survive in high temperatures.

and to me, traveling to distant planets is not a priority because, we have SO SO SO MANY problems on earth. Why waste all that money?? we might as well solve those problems and recycle and stuff.

edit:

oops. Russia WAS in a chaos, but it wasnt the end of civilization for the rest of the world.

Answer 2

I think it's important not to confuse the question of "will we go extinct" with "will our civilization end one day". Global warming, even with the most dire and untenable predictions of the worst alarmists, will NOT extinct the human race. It may cause the collapse of civilization (and even then only in the worst-case scenarios), but again, that is not the same thing. As long as some humans survive, civilizations will eventually rise again. It's happened to us before--the Dark Ages, the implosion of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Roman empire. But while barbarism and chaos followed (and modern Russia is still something of a kleptocracy with a struggling economy), with time new civilizations eventually arose to fill in the vacuum left by the old.

While the extinction of the human race is a possibility, it is a remote one. We know enough about the trajectory of asteroids such that the odds of an unknown one hitting us in the next couple centuries large enough to destroy all of us is very small, and beyond a couple centuries from now we will have the tech to deflect them. Likewise, I don't think a global pandemic could do it either. Humans are too genetically diverse, and there are too many humans still in very remote areas for any one pathogen to wipe us all out.

I think there will come a time when there are no more homo sapiens around, but that will be because we will have evolved into something else. Nanotechnology should eventually allow humans to upload their minds into a quantum computer, thus becoming effectively immortal. Such a transformation would, of course, mean giving up our biological bodies, which are too fragile to last much beyond a single century. This technological transcendence could be possible within a century; optimists like myself are hoping we'll live long enough to see it, and thus live long enough to live forever!

Below are some links related to this. The first is a link to a technical site on mind uploading, followed by a book about some radical life-extension technologies already in the pipeline, another book about the possibility of immortality through technological means, and finally a website called Orion's Arm. That site is part sci-fi and part serious futurism about the future of the human race in the next few millenia. It includes a scenario where regular or "base-line" humans are a tiny and dwindling minority among our more highly-evolved descendants.

Answer 3

Umm.... I definately think that we'll become extinct one day. I especially agree with the first answerer.

Sooner or later... we are bound to be doomed. If nuclear war doesn't get us... something else will. With time, (if we don't do something now) global warming will get us. Global warming will get the whole world... and sadly... a humans have a BIG part in the blame of that.

But if its not a nuclear war or global warming... i think it might be like some sort of outbreak. Like a disease outbreak.

Then you could always think about space and how many people and scientists are saything that Earth might be hit by a huge comet it like... 100 something years... thats pretty scary..

Have you seen that show 20/20? They did an episode based on this.. you should've seen this. It would have answered your question completely.

But anyways... I'm sure somethign will come and wipe us humans and everyhting else out. And i doubt that our technology will advance to those great limits that you're talking about. Maybe in like... 1000 years... but i don't think it will happen anytime soon... or at least in out life times....

so yea... I think humans will become extinct one day.

Answer 4

Definitely... Have a look at history, dinosaurs etc. We have only been on this earth for the blink of an eye. Dinosaurs were here for millions, and where are they now? . It will come to a stage where either, the earth can no longer support us, The weather changes to such a degree either hotter or colder. We'll get clobbered by a meteor or the sun will burn out. Take your pick

Answer 5

Our extinction will happen.

Some of us will move into space. There are already plans for space hotels and lunar habitats. Our species, like others that are separated by distance and environment will change and grow apart.

The planet will be fine. The planet will do as it has done long before we were ever here. However, as we move into space, the species will begin to form into two separate species.

Those born in space will not be able to return to the Earth. They won't be adapted to our gravity. With successive generations the humans who cannot live in our gravity will also begin t have adaptations in their body living in space, low Earth Orbit and on lunar bodies.

We can look at various Earth species to see the difference that air and water pressures create in species development.

Answer 6

Well, if we went through a nucler war, hellz yah we would be dead the instant the bombs hit the ground. As long as we stay in peace, and harmony we should be able to survive. Probably advance enough to live on another planet =).

Answer 7

The current version of homo sapiens will definitely become extinct whether we leave the earth or not, whether is destroyed or not. The earth will change and those that remain upon it will change with it. We are not the creature that left Africa so long ago. Of course those that leave will also change and thus homo sapiens will become extinct.

Answer 8

If we continue like this, killing each other one way or another, we will disappear for sure. That's not such a bright future, is it

Answer 9

What if the sun blew up! Everything will be sucked into a big black ball!!

Answer 10

well, if your a believer than you shouldn't have to worry about this