As we have learnt, the world could simply end, snuff it, be no more, go to meet it's maker, become an ex-world. At any time.
Well, no. Not at any time. As we also know there are and have been many predictions for this tragedy or get out of jail free card, depending on your point of view.
I have recently started to consider spoons. I reckon these could be the catalyst to disaster. I wash my spoons in a dishwasher. Over several years they are beginning to show signs of rust. Being too mean to buy new spoons, as will so many people be in the current rcession, I am therefore taking the risk of eating rust. I suspect my body is now beginning to rust from the inside out. When I finally peg out, whether I am buried or created, the rust in my body will seep out into the earth. While I am only one person, with a small anount of rust, it is not hard to extrapolate figures for the number of future death/rust incidents. From this we can calculate that the world will eventually be overwhelmed by rust by 31st July 2047.
Now, this is simply a catstrophic effect of recession. Governments across the world could give us spoon benefits to allow us to buy new spoons and avert disaster. This would also boost the economy and take us out of recession.
The obvious question to ask? Why are Governments across the world ignoring this effective polciy change?
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Meanwhile, another known threat is approaching fast. The God machine countdown (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/06/1). Also totally avoidable, scientists are determined to test whether they have the power to end the world. Sheer arrogance.
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Please contribution other threats which you consider need drawing to the attention of the world's hapless citizens. Where possible indicate the countdown to the crucial event and the final date.
I consider bears a world-threat, as Stephen Colbert pointed out to us.
Polar bears drifting in ever smaller icebergs to be exact. ;)
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- 10GY: the sun going out of main sequence becoming a red giant.
- 2.5GY: collision between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy.
- 0 to 10MY: collision with a large object like a comet or meteoroid.
- 0 to 1MY: reversal of the magnetic poles.
- 0 to 1KY: Betelgeuse goes nova with a low probability for a gamma ray burst affecting us.
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What I see more probable:
0 to 100Y:
- environmental effects due to climate change
- conventional war
- nuclear war
- biological war
- chemical war
And the most probable end of days for many people during this century:
- systematic genocide
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Make your bets...
Shifts in the environment will probably start the whole thing, but it'll lead to war in certain sectors over increasingly scare resources (water wars, anyone?). A larger (probably biological/chemical) war will just be the clincher. I'll be willing to be it'll be religious in tone ("God meant for us to have that river!"), and certain peoples will probably be exterminated (the usual targets), but I think that'll be second to Manifest Destiny.
Quote from: Griffin NoName on September 06, 2008, 11:17:33 AM
When I finally peg out, whether I am buried or created, the rust in my body will seep out into the earth.
I seem to have made a curious typo. I assume it indicates some odd internal unconscious belief system, but I am damned if I know what. :mrgreen:
Grif, according to most belief systems, you're damned if you do. :mrgreen:
And, also, if you don't.
Am I damned if I what ?