The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanity ?

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Which of these do you consider to be the most immediate threat to humanity ?

CLIMATE CHANGE ?
3
15%
A PANDEMIC VIRUS ?
5
25%
NUCLEAR WAR ?
3
15%
THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY & AI ?
2
10%
WORLD HUNGER ?
0
No votes
WORLD OBESITY ?
0
No votes
THE POST-CAPITALIST SLIDE INTO ECONOMIC OBLIVION WHICH ENDS ULTIMATELY IN THE SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION ?
3
15%
ASTEROID STRIKE ?
4
20%
 
Total votes: 20

Sovietmule
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Sovietmule »

I would have asked for 'The Great Filter' to be added but reckon it's much more likely that one of the already listed events (or something similar) will happen before we find out whether The Great Filter is a reality or not.
johnh wrote: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.)
It would be reassuring to think this is the case. Unfortunately there have been at least two occasions where the planet was spared a nuclear holocaust only because of the actions of an individual Soviet soldier.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... life-prize
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Sovi ... m_incident

There may be more of those kind of incidents which we aren't aware of.

Here's a list of eight nuclear weapons the USA has lost. It seems they don't always look after them particularly well. Don't know if that kind of info exists for other nuclear states but is there any reason to suppose they may be any less cavalier in their attitudes?

https://fighterjetsworld.com/air/list-o ... ound/6093/

Wikipedia list of nuclear accidents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... _accidents Careless lot, aren't they?

In the end I'll vote for Climate change over nuclear war as I think climate change is thing that humanity can do least about. :wave:

MOT (for now, at least) - roll on Hull
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Selby White
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Selby White »

Nature is the most powerful thing going and will at some stage restructure our planet.

Another Ice age similar to what finished the dinasaurs possibly?
Volcanos, earthquakes, floods of stupendous size that they take out whole continents maybe?

We can blame man made global warming but in reality they have all happened before. Saying that we are certainly unbalancing nature.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Deleted User 728 »

I thought an asteroid strike did for the dinosaurs ?
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Selby White
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Selby White »

rigger wrote:I thought an asteroid strike did for the dinosaurs ?
It's still been debated that was the original theory but some scientists now suspect large amounts of volcanic explosions caused climate change which resulted in them becoming extinct.

Bit of a 50-50 split among experts I believe.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nation ... osaurs/amp
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Mr Russell
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Mr Russell »

What’s the biggest threat to humanity?

Answer – The Human race itself!


But to go through the list that is mentioned -

CLIMATE CHANGE? Probably the most likely, I think there is climate change but not to the extent that most are talking about, I think its natural progression to this planet and we are going through a bad patch (so to speak) right now. We, the Human race don’t help either.


A PANDEMIC VIRUS? They can kill thousands and thousands and have in the past and there were worse back in the day, many man made (see Human race again) but a lot are not (animals etc). Right now I’d say no.


NUCLEAR WAR? Back in the 60’s to late 80’s it would have being the number one pick but nowadays I don’t think so but if some crackpot leader ends up in charge then you never know (looking at you US & Russia)


THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY & AI? In the Terminator movies or Battlestar Galactica then I would say YES, I’m a big BG fan, both in the early show and the later re-make but no the washing machines and computer are not taking over just yet and if they did again it would be man-made (hello Human Race!)


WORLD HUNGER? If a catastrophe did happen then this could happen but a no from me.


WORLD OBESITY? No they are only a danger to their own health (Human race again)


THE POST-CAPITALIST SLIDE INTO ECONOMIC OBLIVION WHICH ENDS ULTIMATELY IN THE SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION? The markets around the world are dropping like flies so not out of the realm of possibilities but we survived the first I’m sure we would again.


ASTEROID STRIKE? I think there are too many eyes in the skies to see if this would happen and hopefully they have plans to stop one if it came too close but in reality it happens almost daily as rocks hit the earth’s atmosphere and end up coming through the size of a marble, thankfully! I think there is a better chance of the Sun eating the earth in 3795 (yes I read it in a book when I was 8).
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Deleted User 3289 »

I have gone for Technology. Much like Mathematics underpinned nature long before we discovered it, what you now hear about the power in Quantum computing ect, for me its not unreasonable to think its always been the endstate. Are we in some sort of simulator or a programmed computer game? For me the wickedness that exists within our realm certainly would make more sense that way. It would be great to think that some form of Universal law or Karma exists wouldn't it? A sort of Donkey Kong galactic game really excites me. :angel:

I always have this vision of God laid there in a cot crying "its" (its hard not to put his :shh: :D ) eyes out throwing the dinosaurs out screaming get me something more grown up to play with and then it was fascinated by a Nazi doll. :shifty:
Sovietmule
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Sovietmule »

Viduka Hits The Mark wrote:I have gone for Technology. Much like Mathematics underpinned nature long before we discovered it, what you now hear about the power in Quantum computing ect, for me its not unreasonable to think its always been the endstate. Are we in some sort of simulator or a programmed computer game? For me the wickedness that exists within our realm certainly would make more sense that way. It would be great to think that some form of Universal law or Karma exists wouldn't it? A sort of Donkey Kong galactic game really excites me. :angel:

I always have this vision of God laid there in a cot crying "its" (its hard not to put his :shh: :D ) eyes out throwing the dinosaurs out screaming get me something more grown up to play with and then it was fascinated by a Nazi doll. :shifty:
Fascinating and mysterious innit? When you think about consciousness (if you ever do), I mean, wtf is it?
What is this thing you refer to as "I". Can't be your thoughts or feelings can it as they come and go, appear and disappear whereas "I" is always there.
It can't be your physical attributes either as they are made up of cells which are continually dying and being replaced and "I" is always there.

Anyone here meditate? Anyone interested in the non-dual perrenial understanding?

... and I haven't even had any beer yet!!
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Deleted User 3289 »

Sovietmule wrote:
Viduka Hits The Mark wrote:I have gone for Technology. Much like Mathematics underpinned nature long before we discovered it, what you now hear about the power in Quantum computing ect, for me its not unreasonable to think its always been the endstate. Are we in some sort of simulator or a programmed computer game? For me the wickedness that exists within our realm certainly would make more sense that way. It would be great to think that some form of Universal law or Karma exists wouldn't it? A sort of Donkey Kong galactic game really excites me. :angel:

I always have this vision of God laid there in a cot crying "its" (its hard not to put his :shh: :D ) eyes out throwing the dinosaurs out screaming get me something more grown up to play with and then it was fascinated by a Nazi doll. :shifty:
Fascinating and mysterious innit? When you think about consciousness (if you ever do), I mean, wtf is it?
What is this thing you refer to as "I". Can't be your thoughts or feelings can it as they come and go, appear and disappear whereas "I" is always there.
It can't be your physical attributes either as they are made up of cells which are continually dying and being replaced and "I" is always there.

Anyone here meditate? Anyone interested in the non-dual perrenial understanding?

... and I haven't even had any beer yet!!
Arrhhh the Brain. More complex than life itself, a magical wondrous instrument. I just wish i knew how to use it properly. :D My Brain development seems to have ceased and all i am left with is emotion intelligence. But fear not... because imagination is the greatest gift of all and belief is secondary. Don't get grounded in facts, they are already known, its the uknown where the action is. How do i know this? I don't obviously, but that's where the fun starts.... :lolno:

And no. I haven't copied John Lennon. :thumbup:
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by zigzag »

Interesting topic, I think we are OK a species for now but there is one of these options that, should it happen to sufficient degree, we can do nothing about, the others can all be mitigated to some extent so whilst they may account for a population decrease would not wipe us out completely.

Climate change, the world has been through a number of ice-ages, cooled to start the ice age and warmed to end it, overlaid on that have been mini ice-ages, Christmas cards depict snow because at the time of them gaining popularity we were in a mini ice age with harsh winters, the Thames froze over, but less than 2,000 years ago the Romans were busy growing in many parts of this country indicating a warmer climate than now, the Alaskan glaciers have been in retreat since the mid/late 1700's (no carbon emissions back then so how is that possible?), there are climate cycles and cycles within cycles, and cycles within cycles within cycles. Climate change takes place over many 100's if not 1,000s of years, in the current debate (well its not a debate, your are almost a social outcast if you don't agree 100% with climate change) we are looking at too short a timescale. Alot of what we are fed by the media as climate change is weather, totally different to climate change, and here humans have not helped one bit, take floods for example, flood plains have always been there, they are well named, but building on them exaggerates the flooding issue as now we see homes being flooded whereas 100 or more years ago it was just the fields that were flooded. Weather is changing, climate has always changed, people adapt, no danger other than a media/political agenda.

Pandemic virus, viruses have always existed, but they have not been sufficiently virulent to wipe out the population of even a town let alone a country, continent, or the world. The Black Death, severe yes, but the people were living in unsanitary conditions, unheard of in the modern world, medicine to all intents & purposes had not been discovered, but the population survived. Today a pandemic may spread faster and wider due to our global world, the young/old/weak/ill will suffer disproportionately as they do with most illnesses, but the human race will survive.

Nuclear war, we have a power balance, have done since the depths of the cold war, coupled to this is that the countries with the most destructive arsenal are essentially democracies, so I don’t see a danger from the large traditional nuclear players. A rogue state or organisation may one day get hold of a nuke and even use it, but retribution from the larger players would soon end this (granted there may well be a long drawn out conventional/terrorist style campaign to follow) but the nuclear damage would be relatively localised.

Technology & AI, now here we could see an issue if this AI got control of the nukes. But I don’t think AI is advancing as quickly as the boffins would have us believe, and in any case a big lad with a sledgehammer could go in and smash up all the machines if things were looking to get out of hand.

Hunger, there's always been hunger in certain locations, but there's always been food in others, historically population have shifted to where the food is (the opposite now happens, the food moves to the populations, but the principle is the same), although there could be an overall reduction in the population size, which one day will have to stabilize as the earth only has a finite capacity to feed the population.

Obesity, not everyone will get obese, those that do may die, everything in moderation is the key so I'm told.

The economics one, cyclical again, its happened before, it will happen again, there are winners (a few) and losers (many) in an economic crash, but there are many people and societies who are not tied into western global capitalism. The world will survive the next crash, the trick to coming out of the crash well is knowing when its going to happen.

Which leaves me with asteroid strike, sooner or later we will be on a collision course with an asteroid of sufficient size that it wont just be a shooting star it will do serious damage to the planet. We may have the ability to detect the incoming space rock and know that its coming to crash land here on earth, but I doubt that we are anywhere near getting the technology to do anything about it, we would have to intercept it deep in space, be able to break it into tiny pieces or somehow divert its trajectory. Cant see us having the ability to do that, or being able to develop it quickly enough when we do see the asteroid hurtling towards us, nor for that matter having the global co-operation and cohesion do launch such a mission. I'm afraid that when we see an asteroid zooming out of cold dark space its time to say goodbye.

A Friday afternoon at work musing, much better than doing what I should be doing.
Sovietmule
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Re: The Doomsday poll - what's the biggest threat to humanit

Post by Sovietmule »

Viduka Hits The Mark wrote:
Sovietmule wrote:
Viduka Hits The Mark wrote:I have gone for Technology. Much like Mathematics underpinned nature long before we discovered it, what you now hear about the power in Quantum computing ect, for me its not unreasonable to think its always been the endstate. Are we in some sort of simulator or a programmed computer game? For me the wickedness that exists within our realm certainly would make more sense that way. It would be great to think that some form of Universal law or Karma exists wouldn't it? A sort of Donkey Kong galactic game really excites me. :angel:

I always have this vision of God laid there in a cot crying "its" (its hard not to put his :shh: :D ) eyes out throwing the dinosaurs out screaming get me something more grown up to play with and then it was fascinated by a Nazi doll. :shifty:
Fascinating and mysterious innit? When you think about consciousness (if you ever do), I mean, wtf is it?
What is this thing you refer to as "I". Can't be your thoughts or feelings can it as they come and go, appear and disappear whereas "I" is always there.
It can't be your physical attributes either as they are made up of cells which are continually dying and being replaced and "I" is always there.

Anyone here meditate? Anyone interested in the non-dual perrenial understanding?

... and I haven't even had any beer yet!!
Arrhhh the Brain. More complex than life itself, a magical wondrous instrument. I just wish i knew how to use it properly. :D My Brain development seems to have ceased and all i am left with is emotion intelligence. But fear not... because imagination is the greatest gift of all and belief is secondary. Don't get grounded in facts, they are already known, its the uknown where the action is. How do i know this? I don't obviously, but that's where the fun starts.... :lolno:

And no. I haven't copied John Lennon. :thumbup:
I can understand your reference to the brain and imagination being the "I" mentioned earlier. 'Personhood' or the idea that all the thoughts, experiences, feelings, relationships etc. are what constitute the "I" is a commonly held idea - and why not. Maybe consider for a second though:

What is left once all those things are stripped away? What is that "I"?
With very little practice one can easily 'step back' and watch their thoughts, emotions etc rise up (from where?) and then watch them disappear - what have you stepped back from/into, what is the 'thing' that watches?

Some would say the answer to those questions is Consciousness or Awareness.

It's an interesting line of enquiry and I'll leave the subject with this quote (paraphrased):

There is no experiential evidence that Awareness or Consciousness is located either in a brain or a mind. The brain and the mind appear to Consciousness.
Consciousness does not appear to or in them.

Consciousness is not simply a subdued or mellow state of mind (or brain) because it is present equally when the mind (or brain) is both agitated and peaceful.
Therefore it is not dependent on the state of the mind and/or brain.

Consciousness is present no matter what. Test this out in your experience. Establish for yourself as a fact of experience that you, Consciousness,
are present throughout all appearances of the mind, body and world, irrespective of how peaceful or agitated those appearances may be.
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