The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanity ?
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Deleted User 728
The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanity ?
Every time I turn on the news, look at a paper or engage with social media all I see is doom and gloom whether on a local, national or global level so I thought I'd start a poll about the looming threat to human life on earth as we know it
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
Can we add asteroid please
All at Amazon Books
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When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney
The Thrones Murders
The Funny Corner
When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney
The Thrones Murders
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Deleted User 728
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
Good point, well made 
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
Surprised that Brexit wasn't included. 
I once played against Don Revie.
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Deleted User 728
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
Davy, you might want to re-cast your vote, mate .. not just because I added "Asteroid" to the poll but because the existing votes got deleted
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Deleted User 728
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
John, I actually typed it out then removed itjohnh wrote:Surprised that Brexit wasn't included.
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Deleted User 5081
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
I went for Nuclear war.
If we look at the world as it is, a lot of it is sensationalized and very powerful to subdue or control our mindset. I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist and i do like having a bit of banter about it from time to time with friends over a few beers etc, but, I kid you not! each and every one of these E.L.E (extinction level events) are very much real and closer to society than ever before.
I try not to get into politics but were in dark times with some of the political stuff going on and this brings a whole host of issues surrounding market crashes and fluctuations that can send some leaders over the edge and become somewhat irrational and fuse that with population growth, lack of resources and a society that filled with "we want more rights to things"
Is Climate change real or is it fake? Is it a natural occurrence that happens every million or more years. The earth has a very strange orbital path around the sun and its not a circular path as we have been taught its egg shaped and over the course of a million or so years it happens to be further away from the sun and yet also gets closer at other times is this the reason why its getting hotter? Ice ages happen when were further away on our orbit and no fake tan oils sold when were slightly closer. Think of the Goldilocks planet and how we are just in the right place to breed life add in a speed wobble to that which has happened it knocks our orbital path about a bit and over the course of a few hundred thousand or a million years we can have a hotter climate and a colder climate when further out.
It could all be that were burning all the fossil fuels also and were just doomed from farting and smoking ciggies each day while flying to every inch of the planet.
I'm slightly chubby and i don't think i'm gonna bring down the world with my weight not unless i'm letting out lethal doses of methane as well as many others are.
world hunger will only happen if we do have a huge issue with climate change and many countries lose a lot of their lands due to rising sea water, but there will always be food around for those who can afford it
robots and terminator style machines running amok? hmmm great movies and yes it could happen with self thinking and self developing robotics which were not far off as it is. But i still think it won't be this that ends life.
Capitalism and political systems failing can bring a lot of turmoil and can lead to wars happening but this has happened hundreds if not thousandths of times during history when monarchies fell and revolutions happened etc. Things were always resolved somehow. Not this one for me. (i'm being flippant sorry)
Asteroids are a very grave threat to the world as are viruses but with asteroids we have a lot of eyes spying the sky, some are even robotic eyes now so the chances of getting hit by one that will wipe us all out again is not as high. Viruses on the other hand are second in my list of major threats as we can see Coronavirus or Covid 19 as its officially known now can be devastating to the very fabric of a society and its economy etc. I do fear the most virulent strain of Ebola more than anything which had a kill ratio of 85-95% of its victims, again though life will prevail.
Nuclear war is just the ultimate stalker of our planet since its invention during the 1940's and is to me the biggest threat to humanity and the world as a whole.Its the only one of the list that incorporates all of the others except for the asteroid. Political systems failing can bring a nuclear war, hunger will almost happen after a nuclear war, climate change will be on XTC and well have nuclear winter and a scorched earth in so many places. nuclear war could also contaminate the air so much it will cause untold viruses and illness which itself will kill millions. You won't need to go on a diet after a nuclear war as there will be no food around so STAY OBESE you might just enjoy a few more weeks more than others.
Sorry it was a bit long winded but i wanted to get in on this one. Thanks for your time. MOT
If we look at the world as it is, a lot of it is sensationalized and very powerful to subdue or control our mindset. I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist and i do like having a bit of banter about it from time to time with friends over a few beers etc, but, I kid you not! each and every one of these E.L.E (extinction level events) are very much real and closer to society than ever before.
I try not to get into politics but were in dark times with some of the political stuff going on and this brings a whole host of issues surrounding market crashes and fluctuations that can send some leaders over the edge and become somewhat irrational and fuse that with population growth, lack of resources and a society that filled with "we want more rights to things"
Is Climate change real or is it fake? Is it a natural occurrence that happens every million or more years. The earth has a very strange orbital path around the sun and its not a circular path as we have been taught its egg shaped and over the course of a million or so years it happens to be further away from the sun and yet also gets closer at other times is this the reason why its getting hotter? Ice ages happen when were further away on our orbit and no fake tan oils sold when were slightly closer. Think of the Goldilocks planet and how we are just in the right place to breed life add in a speed wobble to that which has happened it knocks our orbital path about a bit and over the course of a few hundred thousand or a million years we can have a hotter climate and a colder climate when further out.
It could all be that were burning all the fossil fuels also and were just doomed from farting and smoking ciggies each day while flying to every inch of the planet.
I'm slightly chubby and i don't think i'm gonna bring down the world with my weight not unless i'm letting out lethal doses of methane as well as many others are.
world hunger will only happen if we do have a huge issue with climate change and many countries lose a lot of their lands due to rising sea water, but there will always be food around for those who can afford it
robots and terminator style machines running amok? hmmm great movies and yes it could happen with self thinking and self developing robotics which were not far off as it is. But i still think it won't be this that ends life.
Capitalism and political systems failing can bring a lot of turmoil and can lead to wars happening but this has happened hundreds if not thousandths of times during history when monarchies fell and revolutions happened etc. Things were always resolved somehow. Not this one for me. (i'm being flippant sorry)
Asteroids are a very grave threat to the world as are viruses but with asteroids we have a lot of eyes spying the sky, some are even robotic eyes now so the chances of getting hit by one that will wipe us all out again is not as high. Viruses on the other hand are second in my list of major threats as we can see Coronavirus or Covid 19 as its officially known now can be devastating to the very fabric of a society and its economy etc. I do fear the most virulent strain of Ebola more than anything which had a kill ratio of 85-95% of its victims, again though life will prevail.
Nuclear war is just the ultimate stalker of our planet since its invention during the 1940's and is to me the biggest threat to humanity and the world as a whole.Its the only one of the list that incorporates all of the others except for the asteroid. Political systems failing can bring a nuclear war, hunger will almost happen after a nuclear war, climate change will be on XTC and well have nuclear winter and a scorched earth in so many places. nuclear war could also contaminate the air so much it will cause untold viruses and illness which itself will kill millions. You won't need to go on a diet after a nuclear war as there will be no food around so STAY OBESE you might just enjoy a few more weeks more than others.
Sorry it was a bit long winded but i wanted to get in on this one. Thanks for your time. MOT
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
In all of my years listening to the news, the headlines always seem to roughly equate to "we're all going to die".Every time I turn on the news, look at a paper or engage with social media all I see is doom and gloom whether on a local, national or global level
Well, we haven't yet despite all of the doom and gloom.
I am going for asteroid strike as all of the other ones are likely survivable in some form.
On a slightly different topic - are there any films where the future is bright and not some sort of post apocalyptic nightmare - I can't think of any.
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
I think the only danger of a nuclear holocaust is if a 'major' country is taken over by a pathological dictator. North Korea does not fall into this category as it would be eliminated in short order. The chances of a major country being hijacked are fairly slim as most are democratic (to a degree) with built in 'fail-safe' mechanisms.
(Typing this 40ft underground in my state of the art 'fall-out' shelter.)
(Typing this 40ft underground in my state of the art 'fall-out' shelter.)
I once played against Don Revie.
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Deleted User 728
Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit
Cork : all the evidence about climate change is undeniable to me. We've accelerated the process far more rapidly than the thousands of years it would normally take for a cyclical change : you can't see the average temperature of the planet rise as quickly as in the last three or four decades and then put it down to "normal" conditions. Check out NASA's page on the subject for more info : https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
John : I don't know if it's that simple. What if China wade in to save North Korea ? Or what if Putin tells the UN to do one ? I hope you're right but the kind of cold war tension that I grew up in isn't unfeasible, especially if the economies of certain superpowers continue to grow at the expense of others *cough* Brexit *cough*
psquithy : distopian futures are the norm in sci-fi, mainly because the majority of writers in the genre went through the same cold war scenarios as I mentioned above. I would argue that after certain "ELEs" (thanks for that one, Cork) covered in movies and books it may be the case that the planet settles down to a new age of peace given that populations may be drastically reduced, territories not so important in the face of mere survival and because of a loss of infrastructure and industry the remaining peoples go back to an arable life, living off the land and not even considering anything else for centuries.
You could argue that HG Wells' Time Machine sees a utopian future for half the population. Also, what happens after The War Of The Worlds is won ? None of his works, nor those of Clarke, Niven, Heinlein, Dick, et al go on to explore peaceful futures with happy people and a prosperous planet because they wouldn't sell : there's no drama, no conflict, no action.
Who knows, maybe we all live happily ever after ?
John : I don't know if it's that simple. What if China wade in to save North Korea ? Or what if Putin tells the UN to do one ? I hope you're right but the kind of cold war tension that I grew up in isn't unfeasible, especially if the economies of certain superpowers continue to grow at the expense of others *cough* Brexit *cough*
psquithy : distopian futures are the norm in sci-fi, mainly because the majority of writers in the genre went through the same cold war scenarios as I mentioned above. I would argue that after certain "ELEs" (thanks for that one, Cork) covered in movies and books it may be the case that the planet settles down to a new age of peace given that populations may be drastically reduced, territories not so important in the face of mere survival and because of a loss of infrastructure and industry the remaining peoples go back to an arable life, living off the land and not even considering anything else for centuries.
You could argue that HG Wells' Time Machine sees a utopian future for half the population. Also, what happens after The War Of The Worlds is won ? None of his works, nor those of Clarke, Niven, Heinlein, Dick, et al go on to explore peaceful futures with happy people and a prosperous planet because they wouldn't sell : there's no drama, no conflict, no action.
Who knows, maybe we all live happily ever after ?