How will the world end?

[w0lf]

Your prediction. How will humanity end?

[RedAnarchist]

Persoanlly,I think that the Earth has a few billion years left before the Sun engulfs it. Of course, by then humanity could have found a new planet to live on.

[Y Chwyldro Comiwnyddol Cymraeg]

Yup..the sun will engulf us

[Sentinel]

Either humanity will conquer mortality and become the singularity, or we will be annihilated. Nevertheless, the universe will likely exist for eons to come. Eventually all of the stars will have burned out and the possibility of life as we know it will have vanished.

But who knows, what forms the life that has developed out of the old human species of earth will take at that point..? Will it even be organic anymore? This kind of speculation, attempting to visualise such a distant future, is almost a bit too much 'chrystal ball' for the S&E forum.. maybe this is more of a topic for Chit Chat or maybe Religion?

Isn't 'the end of the world' quite a religious concept after all? :o

[spartan]

When the Stalinists get into power (Read George Orwells book "1984" for what will happen next).

The world might as well end when the Stalinists get into power :D

[Bilan]

1984 wasn't a reference to Stalinism in particular, Spartan!

[spartan]

1984 wasn't a reference to Stalinism in particular, Spartan!
Well yeah i am sure that there were critiscisms of other political and economic systems in the book but for the most part it was Stalinism that Orwell was (Rightly) critiscising.

Just remember the character of Emmanual Goldstein (The object of all the hatred in the annual two minute hates and the fictional leader of the "resistance" to Big Brother i.e. Stalin) who was obviously a reference to Trotsky and his exile from the USSR and how any "Socialist", in countries ruled by Stalinist parties who did anything against the parties rule, was immediately labelled a "Trotskyist" or "Social Fascist", amongst many other stupid things, and sent off to a gulag (In 1984 the gulags are known as "labour camps" but they both serve the same purposes of political re-education and the slave labour of the "enemies of the state").

And all just because they disagreed with the system in place in the USSR or advocated workers control over their workplaces!

Quite a large part of the book was a direct critique of Stalinist style State Capitalist political and economic systems and how Orwell imagined them to be in the future with future technology like telescreens (Security cameras) amongst other things.

Now Orwells works, such as "1984" and "Animal Farm", have been adopted by the Bourgeoisie education systems as there way of teaching the young to never believe in a Socialist system.

Now what is stupid about this is that the variant of "Socialism" that Orwell was critiscising wasnt Socialism at all!

Rather it was Stalinism (Which obviously isnt Socialism but authoritarian Bureaucratic State Capitalism with a liking for Autocratic rulers and the destruction of practically non-existent enemies) that was being critiscised mainly in 1984.

[Vanguard1917]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 11:41 pm
Isn't 'the end of the world' quite a religious concept after all? :o
Yes, it is. The 'repent, the end is nigh' message plays a central role not only in Christianity, but also in secular religions like today's mainstream environmentalism.

[MarxSchmarx]

the Earth has a few billion years left before the Sun engulfs it.

W0lf by "world" did you mean planet earth or some variant of "All Creation"?

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

It depends on what you mean by "the end of the world".

If you mean the planet Earth itself, the most likely end would be being engulfed by the sun as it enters its red giant stage.

If you mean the world of humans, then there are a number of interesting possibilities. An all-out thermonuclear war or a worst case Peak Oil scenario would certainly mean the end of human civilisation as we know it if not the human species. A technological singularity could mean the end of human life, but the way I see it in such a scenario human life would likely continue in some radically different form, unthought of in todays technologically limited era. A post-singularity world would be an unrecognisably different place. Humans being an extremely inventive species, we could quite possibly terminate ourselves in some other unforseen way.

As for the universe itself, we have heat death (ultimate entropy), everything tearing itself apart as expansion increases exponentially, and least likely of all considering recent observations, the Big Crunch, where expansion reverses and everything is crushed into a space smaller than a proton. From then on quantum effects would likely take over and who the fuck knows what would happen next.

[piet11111]

technology or evolution will eventually change our species so much that we no longer can be considered the same species as we are today.
and that will be the 100% guaranteed "end" of "us" because we can not stop technological progress and evolution.

probably not the doomsday scenario the OP wanted but for doomsday scenario's you should go to church they have millenia of experience with those :lol:

however the end of modern human society could be countless things and the most likely one to end our boundless consumption culture would be the energy crisis and maybe even global warming.

anyway i am confident everything will turn out alright and i dont understand this modern pessimism about humanity's future.

[Dr Mindbender]

When you say the end of the world do you mean the end of the world or the end of humanity?

If its the latter theres a quote at the start of that movie 'outbreak' - ''the single biggest threat to man's domination of the planet is the virus''.

[w0lf]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 06:49 am

the Earth has a few billion years left before the Sun engulfs it.

W0lf by "world" did you mean planet earth or some variant of "All Creation"?
edit: Humanity or Earth

[Dr Mindbender]

I dont mind, as long as it doesnt happen before i finish my 'things to do before i die' list.
:P

[MarxSchmarx]

W0lf by "world" did you mean planet earth or some variant of "All Creation"?edit: Humanity or Earth

Earth: swallowed up by the sun.

Humanity: Same as any other organism, sooner or later we will speciate and there will be a temporal form of reproductive isolation. So that a being from say 40 million years in the future cannot mate and produce potentially viable, potentially fertile offspring with a person today.

let's assume they clone somebody from the present day 40 million years from now to conduct this experiment.

[FireFry]

1984 was a critique of FASCISM, and it's movement abroad to repress civil liberties. Remember, INGSOC (English Socialism) is a phone-ring away from Nazism (National Socialism). And hence, why he uses that as a parable for what happens under these regimes.

If it was stalinist, love would be free and allowed, workers would work 18 hour days (as far as I remember, winston got off at about 5!!), and etc...

Of course, stalinism was pretty radically totalitarian, but not as radical as central european fascism in the mid-century. Of course, any leader realistically consolidating TOTAL power is impossible, and a large party of hundreds if not thousands of inner party cadre would probably be TOO inefficient to make strategic war decisions and production decisions for society, it would decay as provisions were given out. Any such Orwellian society would rapidly deteriorate into total insanity and savagery as people were peddled to deny their own experiences in favor of the party -- something that goes contrary to sane human nature. At best, it would turn to savagery when the taps went off and the power went out. From there, humanity could begin again to rebuild a rational civilization.

I think that's what Orwell meant by his power of the "human spirit", while Smith was being tortured.

[Holden Caulfield]

1984 about Stalinism, changing who you are at war with = non agression pact,
Goldstein obviously Bronstein (trotsky)
supression of old newspapers so ideals arent contradicted = issues of Pravda when Stalin is praising Trotsky were removed

etc etc

anyhoo, probably some second rate nation being scared into firing a nuke by American agression the massive american response, then death lots of it

[apathy maybe]

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

[Red Economist]

personally i think the most ironic and peotic way for humanity to go out it to achieve communism and a truely 'civilised system', we then find out God exists...and get punished for being too good to ourselves.

perhaps it's just my sense of humour...

although realisitically- i;d guess something from space... an asteroid.

like the one that's heading our way about 2019?

anyone fancy a bet?

[Lenin II]

I anticipate one of two ways to end the horror - either the imperialist system will be shattered by the people taking up arms against their capitalist states and bringing revolution to prevent world war, or this world war will occur and destroy much of humanity, and what is left over will not have long to survive on a devastated earth. The future will inevitably contain either a world war or proletariat revolution.

[Don't Change Your Name]

What about nanobots eating up the whole planet? That would be an amusing scenario. It might not actually happen but I'm sure it's not impossible.

[Holden Caulfield]

with a sigh of apathy

[Cryotank Screams]

How will humanity end?

If humanity were to perish my guess would be that eventually a comet (that is a half-mile or larger) will hit the Earth or as other members have said the Sun will engulf the Earth. But I also agree with Sentinel's point on this.

[abbielives!]

the primitivists will kill everyone...

[Dystisis]

The universe ends when John wakes up from his dream.

An end to humanity would more likely be caused by something internal in my opinion. Like a huge war, for instance. Or some scientific accident (including robots going rambo). Or a virus - or rapidly spreading disease.

[Luís Henrique]

How, and when, will the world begin?

Luís Henrique

[apathy maybe]

Well, my own personal opinion on that is the world will begin when when a small child installs the universe simulator on their computer and it runs its course until, the world is created.

[smoy]

actually scientists in europe just created the worlds largest particle accelerator which has the potential of slamming two electrons together so quickly that a possible microscopic black hole could be created. Its very unlikely but if a black hole were made it would destroy the earth

[Holden Caulfield]

just made? have you not read the da vinci code? lol

the earth will begin when all are equals amongst equals all this will be a prolouge,
the earth will end when the sun get bored and decides for a change

[flyingpants]

Are we talking about the physical destruction of the earth, or just the human race?

If it's the latter, it's amazing that almost NONE of you named the REAL threats to survival.

Nuclear wars, which we've almost had at least two.
Global warming, which is fast-approaching.