Doomsday prophecies predicting the end of the world are as old as mankind itself. But the dark truth is that as mankind advances technologically, our chances of destroying our planet increased dramatically. New inventions and scientific techniques have unforeseen consequences. All it takes is one wrong move, one crazy dictator, or one mad scientist and everything that makes our world special could be gone in an instant. And for all we know, one of these doomsday scenarios could trigger within our lifetimes. So let's find out which are the most likely as we explore four ways the earth could end very soon.
252 million years ago, our planet decided it was sick of all these weird creatures crawling all over it. So to get rid of this irritating condition known as life, Earth went to the drug store and bought some special cream and it almost did the job. Nearly 90% of all ocean life vanished during this period along with 70% of land species and many kinds of insects trees plants and microbes too. This event was aptly named The Great Dying and scientists are uncertain as to what caused it.
Many of the potential contributors have been linked to the eruption of major volcanic eruptions in China and Russia just before the extinction took place. During these eruptions, the Chinese and Russian volcanoes are estimated to have ejected one to four thousand kilometers square of material causing the greenhouse effect and a mass of Methane release among a litany of other devastating side effects.
For comparison, the Yellowstone supervolcano was predicted to eject three thousand kilometers square of material when it erupts. And unfortunately for us, Yellowstone is overdue for an eruption by a few thousand years. As our other super volcanoes in North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania, if any of these magmas were to burst, it could lead to a series of environmental issues which going to cause the extinction of all life on Earth.
Another historical cause of large-scale extinction here on earth is asteroid impact. We think that the Chicxulub asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago and such an event could occur again if we were to miss calculate the trajectory of an Earthbound asteroid.
Thankfully, NASA is confident. It can track asteroids large enough to disrupt human life and as time goes on these detection efforts improve as our contingency plans should we identify collision late in the day.
But what if we have to deal with an asteroid that isn't coming at us from deep space? Confused a bit?
That's because you haven't heard of a varnish shot.
Varnish shots are a hypothetical volcanic reaction which launches a huge amount of material into a suborbital trajectory and because what comes up must come down. This mass of material would eventually fall back down to the earth creating a locally sourced whole foods style asteroid whose impact could be capable of wiping out humanity.
A varnish shot has never been witnessed but we have evidence that one may have taken place at the site of the Deccan Traps 66 million years ago meaning that the Chicxulub event could have been caused by an event here on earth. Anyone of these aforementioned supervolcano sites could play host to a varnish shot incident. And there is evidence to suggest that fracking activities could cause a chain reaction of events which results in an ejection that would otherwise not have occurred.
Another potential, man-made asteroid event could be generated through mining activities on comets and meteors which are moved in proximity to earth. We are expected to start mining asteroids for minerals in the next few decades but if an accident on board a near-earth asteroid were to cause it to change course, we would have no chance of reacting in time to prevent its impact.
Earth is already in the midst of its sixth major extinction event. On the off chance that a space rock effect or volcanic ejection were to happen at the present time the rest of the living things might not have enough of them to get by inside this modified atmosphere. Humans are the drivers of this extinction event. With our industrial activities resource requirements and population increase all contributing to the destruction of species around the world.
But we're not content to stop there. We're exacerbating the problem by releasing genetically modified organisms out into the biosphere without fully testing the effects. There is no way we can know the long-term consequence of genome editing upon earth delicately balanced ecosystems. Yet, there are many new species of animal and plant out there in the wild. As we speak, some of these organisms may become the dominant species among their type due to the advantage is given by genetic modification. But if there is a fundamental flaw within these creatures or plants which only erupts later an entire genus could be lost within years.
Another threat comes from synthetic biology which involves the creation of artificial organisms from a mixture of biological and non-biological components. We have recently created the first synthetic DNA basis in synthetic bacteria and nobody is quite sure how far this technology will go. It is possible that we may accidentally create a super virus or super bacteria that wipes out all other life on Earth and this is no mere scare story. It is predicted by experts that we will see a major incident related to biological technology at some point in the next half-century.
The idea of nanobot was recommended as far back as the 1950s when physicist Richard Feynman portrayed his concept of smaller than expected robots fit for working, repairing and making things on an atomic level. In 2015, this innovation became alive when smaller scale engine controlled nanobots conveyed a nanoparticle compound straightforwardly into the gut tissue of a live mouse. And by the mid 21st century, it is expected that nanotechnology will have reached the point where we can manipulate individual molecules on mass using a swarm of these tiny robot tools.
However, the threat to earth comes when self-replication or artificial intelligence is introduced into the equation. If we were to create Von Neumann machines which our device is capable of recreating themselves using nothing but the necessary raw materials, an out-of-control swarm could end up consuming the entire planet. Their self-replicating nature means that once they begin, there would be no stopping a Von Neumann fleet. And such a swarm could even go on to consume the solar system and worlds beyond if they were powerful and numerous enough.
If we imbibe these machines with artificial intelligence, this destruction of the earth may not be an accident. An intelligent swarm of self-replicating robots may see mankind as a drain on its resources and have already acquired the knowledge required to improve themselves, a swarm of artificially intelligent Von Neumann machines may choose to consume our planet in order to fulfill one single primary purpose, the creation of more of themselves.
So unlike in the movies, it seems mankind is more likely to succumb to teeny-tiny little robots than a horde of giant Terminator death machines.
But if we survive this technological catastrophe, what else may come to destroy us later down the line?
Feel free to write it down in the comment section below this article.
1. Supervolcano
252 million years ago, our planet decided it was sick of all these weird creatures crawling all over it. So to get rid of this irritating condition known as life, Earth went to the drug store and bought some special cream and it almost did the job. Nearly 90% of all ocean life vanished during this period along with 70% of land species and many kinds of insects trees plants and microbes too. This event was aptly named The Great Dying and scientists are uncertain as to what caused it.
Many of the potential contributors have been linked to the eruption of major volcanic eruptions in China and Russia just before the extinction took place. During these eruptions, the Chinese and Russian volcanoes are estimated to have ejected one to four thousand kilometers square of material causing the greenhouse effect and a mass of Methane release among a litany of other devastating side effects.
For comparison, the Yellowstone supervolcano was predicted to eject three thousand kilometers square of material when it erupts. And unfortunately for us, Yellowstone is overdue for an eruption by a few thousand years. As our other super volcanoes in North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania, if any of these magmas were to burst, it could lead to a series of environmental issues which going to cause the extinction of all life on Earth.
2. Asteroid Impact
Another historical cause of large-scale extinction here on earth is asteroid impact. We think that the Chicxulub asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago and such an event could occur again if we were to miss calculate the trajectory of an Earthbound asteroid.
Thankfully, NASA is confident. It can track asteroids large enough to disrupt human life and as time goes on these detection efforts improve as our contingency plans should we identify collision late in the day.
But what if we have to deal with an asteroid that isn't coming at us from deep space? Confused a bit?
That's because you haven't heard of a varnish shot.
Varnish shots are a hypothetical volcanic reaction which launches a huge amount of material into a suborbital trajectory and because what comes up must come down. This mass of material would eventually fall back down to the earth creating a locally sourced whole foods style asteroid whose impact could be capable of wiping out humanity.
A varnish shot has never been witnessed but we have evidence that one may have taken place at the site of the Deccan Traps 66 million years ago meaning that the Chicxulub event could have been caused by an event here on earth. Anyone of these aforementioned supervolcano sites could play host to a varnish shot incident. And there is evidence to suggest that fracking activities could cause a chain reaction of events which results in an ejection that would otherwise not have occurred.
Another potential, man-made asteroid event could be generated through mining activities on comets and meteors which are moved in proximity to earth. We are expected to start mining asteroids for minerals in the next few decades but if an accident on board a near-earth asteroid were to cause it to change course, we would have no chance of reacting in time to prevent its impact.
3. Biological Disaster
Earth is already in the midst of its sixth major extinction event. On the off chance that a space rock effect or volcanic ejection were to happen at the present time the rest of the living things might not have enough of them to get by inside this modified atmosphere. Humans are the drivers of this extinction event. With our industrial activities resource requirements and population increase all contributing to the destruction of species around the world.
But we're not content to stop there. We're exacerbating the problem by releasing genetically modified organisms out into the biosphere without fully testing the effects. There is no way we can know the long-term consequence of genome editing upon earth delicately balanced ecosystems. Yet, there are many new species of animal and plant out there in the wild. As we speak, some of these organisms may become the dominant species among their type due to the advantage is given by genetic modification. But if there is a fundamental flaw within these creatures or plants which only erupts later an entire genus could be lost within years.
Another threat comes from synthetic biology which involves the creation of artificial organisms from a mixture of biological and non-biological components. We have recently created the first synthetic DNA basis in synthetic bacteria and nobody is quite sure how far this technology will go. It is possible that we may accidentally create a super virus or super bacteria that wipes out all other life on Earth and this is no mere scare story. It is predicted by experts that we will see a major incident related to biological technology at some point in the next half-century.
4. Nanobots
The idea of nanobot was recommended as far back as the 1950s when physicist Richard Feynman portrayed his concept of smaller than expected robots fit for working, repairing and making things on an atomic level. In 2015, this innovation became alive when smaller scale engine controlled nanobots conveyed a nanoparticle compound straightforwardly into the gut tissue of a live mouse. And by the mid 21st century, it is expected that nanotechnology will have reached the point where we can manipulate individual molecules on mass using a swarm of these tiny robot tools.
However, the threat to earth comes when self-replication or artificial intelligence is introduced into the equation. If we were to create Von Neumann machines which our device is capable of recreating themselves using nothing but the necessary raw materials, an out-of-control swarm could end up consuming the entire planet. Their self-replicating nature means that once they begin, there would be no stopping a Von Neumann fleet. And such a swarm could even go on to consume the solar system and worlds beyond if they were powerful and numerous enough.
If we imbibe these machines with artificial intelligence, this destruction of the earth may not be an accident. An intelligent swarm of self-replicating robots may see mankind as a drain on its resources and have already acquired the knowledge required to improve themselves, a swarm of artificially intelligent Von Neumann machines may choose to consume our planet in order to fulfill one single primary purpose, the creation of more of themselves.
So unlike in the movies, it seems mankind is more likely to succumb to teeny-tiny little robots than a horde of giant Terminator death machines.
But if we survive this technological catastrophe, what else may come to destroy us later down the line?
Feel free to write it down in the comment section below this article.
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