Human extinction

[Bugthing]

Alright, slip up. It's just a known fact that we were around a lot longer than then. We didn't always leave behind writing, but a lot can still be learned from the tools and corpses we used. The amount of time we've been around wasn't anywhere near the point I was trying to get across though, so unless you have nothing else to say about that..

[BTGBullseye]

Well, it's also debatable just how long we as a species have been around... Fossil records are inaccurate by however long you want to say we've tested for, (argue all you want, but when you have to tell the testing place what age you think it is before they will test it, something's up) and we don't have any records going back farther than previously mentioned.

 

As for extinction, I don't believe that we ever will truly be extinct as a species, but we may very well be forced to leave the planet at some point or die.

[wakefield26]

I think that a supervolcano, disease/epidemic, overpopulation and famine, and climate change would all potentially cause a lot of deaths, but wouldn't wipe out the entire human species. They would cause massive population loss that would disrupt economies, decrease peace, and set us back technologically and culturally, possibly to a subsistence lifestyle in hard hit areas. It would be interesting to see the renaissance period after a potential 'dark age' if this happened.

 

Even an MAD nuclear situation wouldn't wipe out everyone. Say America and its allies, China and its allies, were all destroyed by nukes. Casualties in each of the participating countries would be huge, but some countries, not participating in the war, would not get directly bombed. The fallout would be terrible worldwide, and there would be lots of death and disease, probably shortened lifespans, but again, not total extinction.

 

I do think humans will go extinct some day. Geologic time pretty much assures it. The earth's end will be our end if we don't create colonies off-planet someday. I think if earth is knocked out of its orbit, gets too close/too far from the sun, we'll have some real problems. That would take some crazy massive asteroid though. Another problem might be lack of water, some time in the distant future.

 

Just think, humans might (d)evolve, (like dinosaurs into chickens) into something lesser to a new dominant species on earth, like mammals overtaking reptiles.

[doomplayer]

I'm a fan of the supernova, because not only does the expansion of our sun wipe out the human race, but all life on Earth with it, and there's more to it. With the Earth absorbed into the enlarged and unstable sun, it explodes, leaving a glorious nebula of our "ashes", among most of the molecules originally comprising the sun

(and Mercury & Venus too). A solar graveyard.

 

That my friends is a well deserved ending for life on Earth.

[Some Cask of Amontillado]

I would say that the greatest danger to humanity is always its own stupidity. If humans don't go extinct by their own fault - climate change, pollution, or war are probably the most likely causes - then I see a much less spectacular and long-winded (and boring) end for the human race: that in a few hundred millennia evolution has done its job and our species can no longer be strictly considered homo sapiens.

Maybe those post-humans will look back and be embarassed that we had the audacity to claim we were the beings in possession of sapientia. And they would be so right.