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Odds for the survival of the human race 50-50 (pg. 3)
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| gibbo |
| quote: | Originally posted by fuct4less
although it seems very likely that all these things will happen, i believe that we as a race will experience a different form of extermination. because of my christian faith i believe that well all be killed off by the anti-christ (not that cheap little "satan" that you see in end of days, but rather by means of a charismatic polititian that rises to power, forms an alliance of nations, and so on. something like what bush is doing). it must sound really funny to all of you, but it makes sense to me (call me an idiot or whatever, but its just what i think will happen) |
Well in some ways i find what ur saying a bit odd but it does make sense in a way because bush could inadvertantly destroy the world by trying to force peace on every one and bring more terrorists out of the woodwork and so forth and also get into wars that america can not handle so easily |
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| Project T |
| quote: | Originally posted by gibbo
well iraqi goverment has been removed now to be restructured and i can't think zimbabwe have nuclear weapons maybe i'm wrong about this i don't know |
i was more on about a human crisis |
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| fuct4less |
| quote: | Originally posted by gibbo
Well in some ways i find what ur saying a bit odd but it does make sense in a way because bush could inadvertantly destroy the world by trying to force peace on every one and bring more terrorists out of the woodwork and so forth and also get into wars that america can not handle so easily |
i could see that happening... who knows? maybe that parjid guy is one of bush's terrorist lackies.:haha: |
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| Alccode |
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He lists as mankind's biggest threats: nuclear terrorism, deadly engineered viruses, rogue machines and genetic engineering that could alter human character. All of those could result from innocent error or the action of a single malevolent individual.
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:haha: :haha: You've got to be kidding me. ROGUE MACHINES??? Someone's been watching too much of T2!!! I can personally guarantee you that this "threat" is absolutely and completely bogus and laughable to the extreme.
There is one website whose entire purpose is to satirize all the end-of-the-world theories. It's really quite informative and encyclopedic. It lists most of the apocalyptic theories of man throughout the ages, like the well-known Nostradamus one, and including modern ones. The purpose of it is to show that people will always proclaim "the end of the world is near" and that, thus, it is sort of in our blood to do so. Just like religion, end-of-the-world proclamations might just be a by-product of the way our brains work. Kind of like a fear of death, except not as pronounced.
The only downside to this is that I've lost the URL to it... dammit, I tried googling it but to no avail. And it was quite a good site, too. :( I highly recommend that you read it if you ever find it. It's really informative and the sheer amount of apocalyptic theories that have been produced over the millenia will most likely convince you that this is nothing new. |
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| Project T |
| quote: | Originally posted by Alccode
:haha: :haha: You've got to be kidding me. ROGUE MACHINES??? Someone's been watching too much of T2!!! I can personally guarantee you that this "threat" is absolutely and completely bogus and laughable to the extreme.
There is one website whose entire purpose is to satirize all the end-of-the-world theories. It's really quite informative and encyclopedic. It lists most of the apocalyptic theories of man throughout the ages, like the well-known Nostradamus one, and including modern ones. The purpose of it is to show that people will always proclaim "the end of the world is near" and that, thus, it is sort of in our blood to do so. Just like religion, end-of-the-world proclamations might just be a by-product of the way our brains work. Kind of like a fear of death, except not as pronounced.
The only downside to this is that I've lost the URL to it... dammit, I tried googling it but to no avail. And it was quite a good site, too. :( I highly recommend that you read it if you ever find it. It's really informative and the sheer amount of apocalyptic theories that have been produced over the millenia will most likely convince you that this is nothing new. |
it's probably www.howstuffworks.com in the hidden section, how you can destroy your planet... with rogue machines :stongue: |
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| marcus82 |
| how do i get to the 'hidden section' if it's hidden? i ran a search on 'rogue machines' but came up with nothing |
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| occrider |
Interesting article related to this topic:
When humans faced extinction
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Humans may have come close to extinction about 70,000 years ago, according to the latest genetic research.
The study suggests that at one point there may have been only 2,000 individuals alive as our species teetered on the brink.
This means that, for a while, humanity was in a perilous state, vulnerable to disease, environmental disasters and conflict. If any of these factors had turned against us, we would not be here.
The research also suggests that humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) made their first journey out of Africa as recently as 70,000 years ago.
Little diversity
Unlike our close genetic relatives - chimps - all humans have virtually identical DNA. In fact, one group of chimps can have more genetic diversity than all of the six billion humans alive today.
It is thought we spilt from a common ancestor with chimps 5-6 million years ago, more than enough time for substantial genetic differences to develop.
The absence of those differences suggests to some researchers that the human gene pool was reduced to a small size in the recent past, thereby wiping out genetic variation between current populations.
Evidence for that view is published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Oldest members
Because all humans have virtually identical DNA, geneticists look for subtle differences between populations.
One method involves looking at so-called microsatellites - short, repetitive segments of DNA that differ between populations.
These microsatellites have a high mutation, or error, rate as they are passed from generation to generation, making them a useful tool to study when two populations diverged.
Researchers from Stanford University, US, and the Russian Academy of Sciences compared 377 microsatellite markers in DNA collected from 52 regions around the world.
Analysis revealed a close genetic kinship between two hunter-gatherer populations in sub-Saharan Africa - the Mbuti pygmies of the Congo Basin and the Khosian bushmen of Botswana.
First migration
The researchers believe that they are "the oldest branch of modern humans studied here".
The data also reveals that the separation between the hunter-gatherer populations and farmers in Africa occurred between 70,000 and 140,000 years ago. Modern man's migration out of Africa would have occurred after this.
An earlier genetic study - involving the Y chromosomes of more than 1,000 men from 21 populations - concluded that the first human migration from Africa may have occurred about 66,000 years ago.
The small genetic diversity of modern humans indicates that at some stage during the last 100,000 years, the human population dwindled to a very low level.
It was out of this small population, with its consequent limited genetic diversity, that today's humans descended.
Small pool
Estimates of how small the human population became vary but 2,000 is the figure suggested in the latest research.
"This estimate does not preclude the presence of other populations of Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) in Africa, although it suggests that they were probably isolated from each other genetically," they say.
The authors of the study believe that contemporary worldwide populations descended from one or very few of these populations.
If this is the case, humanity came very close to extinction. |
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| Project T |
| quote: | Originally posted by marcus82
how do i get to the 'hidden section' if it's hidden? i ran a search on 'rogue machines' but came up with nothing |
hehe i was taking the piss mate, with the use of mr :stongue: here |
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| Dj O'Callaghan |
Its a scary thought. Aswell with all the research which went on viral warfare in the cold war, there must be a lot of old Russian labs and bunkers which have been locked up and left and imagine all the information and samples of viruses that are left in these places. I saw a programme about samples of small pox and other viruses which are kept in these facilties, which have been left abadoned their in desolate isolated area's like Siberia.
You never know who will stumble across these sites, or worst of all the people who worked in these places who have the knowledge of the wareabouts of certain facilties and the knowledge to make viruses are willing to put their expertise up on the black market. |
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| trancaholic |
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The demise of civilization has been predicted since it began, but the odds of keeping Planet Earth alive and well are getting worse amid a breakneck pace of scientific advances, according to Martin Rees, Britain's honorary astronomer royal.
Rees calculates that the odds of an apocalyptic disaster striking Earth have risen to about 50 percent from 20 percent a hundred years ago.
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By 2020, an instance of bioterror or bioerror will have killed a million people, Rees contends.
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The British scientist calls for better regulation and inspection of sensitive data and experiments.
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Sorry for reviving an old thread, but this really gets to me. I'm shocked and appalled that a scientist can come up with this nonsense. I haven't got a clue as to what a "honorary astronomer royal" researches, but I can say that it is certainly not statistics.
First of all Rees calculates 50-50 odds for an apocalyptic disaster "rising from 20 percent a hundred years ago". Without getting lost in clarifications on the rather casual treatment of the concepts of probability and odds displayed in this article, let me just say that in order to put forth either one of the two you need to have a solid base of evidence. For instance, I can talk of the probability of my bicycle running a flat tire on my way to school having rised from about 1% to 10% after I bought a new bicycle. These figures are estimates based on the number of times I have run a flat tire and the number of times this has not happened. Evidently, Mr. Rees has no data of apocalyptic disasters happening in the past, and he most certainly have not observed an increase in frequency of these over the last hundred years.
Adding to these wild guesses, camouflaged as science through careless abuse of terms from probability calculus, Rees also fails to specify his hypothesises to a sufficient level of precision. What does it mean that Earth is hit by an apocalyptic disaster? Is that in the, say, next 1000 years? Or is it from now to the end of time, in which case I would think the very definition of "end of time" entails the destruction of Earth (an apocalyptic event if you ask me), and the probability should be closer to 100% - indicating the certain event.
Furthermore, the prediction on bio-terror claiming the lives of a million people by 2020 seems drawn out of thin air. Where is that number coming from?
Reading the resulting advice from Rees, one cannot help ask who should be trusted with the empowering and potentially yielding task of monitoring and analyzing data and experiments. Perhaps Rees himself? |
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| Spin Doctor |
| It’s not a matter of if the human race ends – it’s a matter of when. This brand of primate will not survive for ever. |
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| hardcore trancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by Alccode
:haha: :haha: You've got to be kidding me. ROGUE MACHINES??? Someone's been watching too much of T2!!! I can personally guarantee you that this "threat" is absolutely and completely bogus and laughable to the extreme.
There is one website whose entire purpose is to satirize all the end-of-the-world theories. It's really quite informative and encyclopedic. It lists most of the apocalyptic theories of man throughout the ages, like the well-known Nostradamus one, and including modern ones. The purpose of it is to show that people will always proclaim "the end of the world is near" and that, thus, it is sort of in our blood to do so. Just like religion, end-of-the-world proclamations might just be a by-product of the way our brains work. Kind of like a fear of death, except not as pronounced.
The only downside to this is that I've lost the URL to it... dammit, I tried googling it but to no avail. And it was quite a good site, too. :( I highly recommend that you read it if you ever find it. It's really informative and the sheer amount of apocalyptic theories that have been produced over the millenia will most likely convince you that this is nothing new. |
can someone please find and post this website,or if there are any other websites like that!!
Iam really intrested of reading about all this!!
thanks in advance.:) |
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