Another thread on here about advancing technology and older people, started me thinking, added to a deep and intriguing conversation I was having with a friend the other day, in the pub of course.

Not a really a cheery or happy subject, but thought it was a very thought provoking one. We were discussing how much longer the human race will exist on this planet, I was saying that I believe that as a species we are on the tail end of our existence on this planet, I don’t mean were all going to die tomorrow or even the next century but if the modern form of the human being has been around for about 200 000 years…and I don’t think the human race will see another 1000 years, if you put it all into the big picture then we are getting towards the end.

There are many things that could end our existence on this planet, climate change, nuclear war, meteor collision, a viral outbreak or advancing technology, personally I believe technology will be the ultimate downfall of mankind, we will wipe ourselves out, not just by its advancement but how its changed and continually changing society, we are all becoming way too reliant and it is also changing how we behave towards one and other, and not in a positive way. The next significant leap in technology which will be the AI Artifical intelligence path….that maybe one advancement too far.

So how long does anyone believe we will still be around for and what will end our existence?

Merry Christmas everyone… its got nothing to do with this subject, but just thought I would add that in for a bit of cheer to balance things out a bit.

Earth is just a 'grain of sand' in the grand scheme of things.


My hope is that everyone will leave this world a little better than they found it. Can't ask much more than that.

Talking of AI, have you watched Ex Machina?

This video on the front page of reddit is also quite apt. Starts at 21:22 if the link doesn't take you straight there.



Former Facebook exec: "I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. You are being programmed"

In August of 1975 I met Phil and Susan Cox of Cambridge, Ontario while travelling down in Oaxaca, Mexico and Phil was a student taking Artificial Intelligence. You don't happen to know if they're still in Cambridge, do you? He said it (AI) would be the future. When he first mentioned it I thought he meant AI in the veterinary sense, chuckles all around. Phil got smart with the Federales on their last morning in Oaxaca and got their car torn apart.

Homo Deus, Yuval Harari explores this topic. Good book (so far).

Personally, I don't think it's worth putting a number of years on it, although it is worth identifying and minimising the risks to the species. On balance though, I suspect we'll evolve ourselves out of existence (through super AI) and/or revert to becoming grassland apes.

Humans will be lucky to last another century. We're about to start rewriting our DNA wholesale, so I doubt there'll be many genetically-human people around by 2117.

But there'll probably still be things descended from humans around billions of years from now.

I'm going to be pedantic. What the question asks is what will end our existence?

It's likely that some astronomical event or any other disaster that generates a long winter is one that'll draw the curtains, although in the history of life on the planet I'm not aware that any event has extinguished all life but we are such fragile creatures that where the humble mouse might find a home out of danger in some hole somewhere, the naked ape without use of those technological marvels that made him master of the planet will really feel the cold.

So, in no particular order, I'd suggest an asteroid collision (tomorrow), All out nuclear echange (Next week), Yellowstone Super Volcanic eruption (Next Month) and a massive impact with a Coronal Mass Ejection (Next Year), Sun exploding (Next Decade), Bitcoin Bubble Bursting... AAaaaahhh it's happening now...

But what do I know?

There are only three things I can think of that could kill off pretty much all life on Earth:

1. A nearby supernova. I don't believe there are any stars near enough and old enough for that to happen before #2.

2. The sun warms up enough to make the Earth uninhabitable. As I understand it, that happens about 300,000,000,000 years from now.

3. A decline in CO2 levels to the point where photosynthesis fails.

There are lots of ways that humans could die off, but you have to try pretty hard to kill everything.

Looks like he is still in Canada but living in NS and is still involved in AI's. His email is listed, if you wanted to get in touch.

The announcement that Cannon and Ball are returning to television.

Thanks! Here's the comment on the thread title: After the Federales left and they struck their camp and put all their belongings back in the car, they left Oaxaca on an older road that actually passed through Cortez's original city wall (which also formed one border of our campground). Outside the gate was a railway track (I think) and when they bumped over it the exhaust roared, something obviously broken. They returned to the campground/trailer court and found me still there. I suspected the donut gasket between manifold and pipe, and it was a broken bolt and gasket. I had a dentist's mirror with a broken handle and was able to show him the parts that were damaged, told him what it should take to fix it, and he took the mirror with him to one of the backyard mechanics along a street full of them. It was just the ticket and I think he even came back after an extremely fast repair to return the mirror and thank me again.
I wouldn't have been able to comprehend any of what he was learning as part of his doctorate, but I was able to teach him a tiny bit about his Toyota, or whatever it was.

If communication technology enables surrogacy through social media making family groups less important then when we choke or burn ourselves back into the bronze age maybe we'll return to more co-dependent extended groups once more.

Apparently the power consumption required to feed the current Bitcoin tulip-bulb frenzy is something like the total requirement of Ireland. There really is no end to humankind's stupidity and greed for money.

A UK study showed that insect populations/biomass had declined by approximately 60-70%, and that was in a nature reserve... over pesticide-sodden arable farmland insect life is probably already close to zero.

If there are no insects, there will be no amphibians and no rodents and no birds, and well, you know how that one pans out...

Gret you tube clip....reinforces how insignificant planet Earth is in the know universe....which is expanding at a rapid rate as we speak.

Haven't seen Ex Machina yet, but fully intend to, it sounds my kind of movie. Talking of movies/series on near future technology...have you seen Black Mirror... I havn't seen all of them yet, but most of the ones I have watched are disturbingly close to near future reality, how technology seems such a great thing...but can be very destructive to society and how we interact with one and other.

Actually when you start to actually think about it...i think you have a point....I hadn't even given biological technology a thought such as rewriting DNA.

The way technology has developed over my life time....its progress is a lot more aggressive than it was in my parents lifetime before that, if technological progress continues exponentionally, then I agree humans may not last another century, now that is a thought provoking but disturbing thought. I believe as one the many species that have inhabited this planet over billions of years, humans will wipe themselves out, and we thought dinosaurs we dumb! they lasted a lot longer than we will.

On the plus side, as an anime-loving friend put it... 'in the future, there will be cat girls.'