How are humans going to become extinct?

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22002530

How are humans going to become extinct?

What are the greatest global threats to humanity? Are we on the verge of our own unexpected extinction?

An international team of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute is investigating the biggest dangers.

And they argue in a research paper, Existential Risk as a Global Priority, that international policymakers must pay serious attention to the reality of species-obliterating risks.

Last year there were more academic papers published on snowboarding than human extinction.

The Swedish-born director of the institute, Nick Bostrom, says the stakes couldn't be higher. If we get it wrong, this could be humanity's final century.

Been there, survived it

So what are the greatest dangers?

First the good news. Pandemics and natural disasters might cause colossal and catastrophic loss of life, but Dr Bostrom believes humanity would be likely to survive.

This is because as a species we've already outlasted many thousands of years of disease, famine, flood, predators, persecution, earthquakes and environmental change. So the odds remain in our favour.

And in the time frame of a century, he says the risk of extinction from asteroid impacts and super-volcanic eruptions remains "extremely small".

Even the unprecedented self-inflicted losses in the 20th Century in two world wars, and the Spanish flu epidemic, failed to halt the upward rise in the global human population.

Nuclear war might cause appalling destruction, but enough individuals could survive to allow the species to continue.

If that's the feelgood reassurance out of the way, what should we really be worrying about?

Dr Bostrom believes we've entered a new kind of technological era with the capacity to threaten our future as never before. These are "threats we have no track record of surviving".

(continued, or not?)

[JimC]

Reading too many Scumple posts, sinking into despondency and forgetting to breed...

[cronus]

Reading too many Scumple posts, sinking into despondency and forgetting to breed...

Amphibians are going away, away, away....they are croaking but soon silences comes.

[pErvinalia]

Reading too many Scumple posts, sinking into despondency and forgetting to breed...

[JimC]

Reading too many Scumple posts, sinking into despondency and forgetting to breed...

Amphibians are going away, away, away....they are croaking but soon silences comes.

I've had my two tadpoles, that'll do me...

[Blind groper]

Humans are about the least likely of any species to go extinct. We are the most successful of any mammal species, measured by the fact that we are the only mammal species to spread to all continents, and islands of any appreciable size, without assistance from any other species.

There are theoretical threats, but only in theory. In practice, there is nothing likely to harm the human species except in a small way.

Mind you, I still go along with the statement that Stephen Hawking made, to the effect that we need to establish off planet self sustaining colonies ASAP, to provide insurance against any species destroying planet wide disaster.

[klr]

It is not inconceivable that humans could go extinct, but it's a very long shot IMHO.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

B.G., rats spread to all continents by having humans build ships to carry them around.

[En_Route]

It is not inconceivable that humans could go extinct, but it's a very long shot IMHO.

And why would it matter if they did?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It is not inconceivable that humans could go extinct, but it's a very long shot IMHO.

And why would it matter if they did?

The species-dependent varieties of louse would be heart-broken.

[Tyrannical]

It is not inconceivable that humans could go extinct, but it's a very long shot IMHO.

And why would it matter if they did?

That must be some serious mental disorder you have if you think your species becoming extinct is not a big deal. Self loathing is one thing, but self-species loathing is another level entirely.

[Ian]

Tyrannical saying something that makes sense (like that last sentence above) may be a sign of the apocalypse...

Ultimately, humans will only go extinct if we de-prioritize our space programs.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It is not inconceivable that humans could go extinct, but it's a very long shot IMHO.

And why would it matter if they did?

That must be some serious mental disorder you have if you think your species becoming extinct is not a big deal. Self loathing is one thing, but self-species loathing is another level entirely.

He's looking it from a larger viewpoint. The planet will go on when there are zero humming beans around.

[cronus]

Don't know? A bypassing super-nova in 37 million years could strip the earth of it's atmosphere leaving it a dead barren cinder? Who really gives a toss?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We are the first species on the planet to think we're going to be here forever.