Anyone think mankind won't destroy itself?

[Bebpo]

Every author, forum poster, professor, etc...

All seem to think that way before the sun becomes a red giant, mankind will bring about the apocalypse and extinct themselves. 


Maybe I'm just optimistic, but I don't really see this happening.  I mean people will talk the talk, but I really don't see countries firing off nukes at each other.  Sure maybe a virus wipes out a huge portion of the population, but that's not really mankind destroying itself, that's bad luck with nature.  I dunno, everyone just seems so determined that mankind will completely eradicate each other purposefully, and that always seem like a total negative viewpoint.  Maybe it's because I'm an optimistic guy, but yeah, don't see it. 

Anyone agree?

[Tasty]

Short of Skynet, it seems unlikely. AI and robot rights will be a bigger issue. Better start kissing robo-ass now.

Edit- The only way enough nukes would go off to completely wipe-out humanity is if US, Russia, China, UK, or France attacked one of the others and all of them started attacking everyone else.

Significant damage could still be done otherwise of course.

[Tasty]

I still find it amazing we got off scott-free from the Cuban Missile Crisis. I mean, holy cow, talk about one second to midnight. If nothing came of that I doubt anything will come close again.

[Phoenix Dark]

we certainly came close


It's hard to imagine a full out nuclear war now, given how connected world markets are. Perhaps that will change in the future, but I tend to think any extinction of man will be caused by accident (man made virus, for instance), or a global disaster (meteor).

[Momo]

I think our ancestors will just go "oops we forgot some fuckers on that planet" and come back for us, as ancient astronaut theorists tells us.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I don't believe we're on the path to destruction

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

We'll adjust.  I doubt that we'll be able to support the exploding population that is going on right now and that adjustment is going to be painful for a lot of people (in third world countries).  I doubt that we'll be able to have our effete lifestyles that we have now.  I won't be able to do shit about it so I'm living it up while cheap energy and cheap money are readily available.

[Barry Egan]

Dan Gardner sounds right up your alley Bebpo: 

[Diunx]

Man if shit had went down during the missile crisis I probably would have never been born, my mum lived in a town near the haitian border so the radiation from the cuba wasteland would have probably reach her.

[Eel O'Brian]

No, but there'll likely be some sort of epidemic that takes out a fairly large portion of the world's population. Probably/Hopefully not in our lifetimes. I think that'll be an indirect result of humanity's tampering - like bacteria/viruses mutating around medical progress. I doubt there'll be another world war in the historical sense. Lots of dirty isolated conflicts, though, and almost certainly we'll butt heads with China at some point and end up in a long cold war there.

[Don Flamenco]

One way or another, yes.  Capitalism is the catalyst...if some idiot doesn't do something in the pursuit of money/power like starting a war over resources that's incredibly destructive, it'll be some biological issue stemming from the exponential growth of the human race.  Caveat: it may not be total annihilation, but something that fucks up a lot of shit and only leaves a few people behind.  Hopefully me and ScarJo. 

If not any of that, random asteroid or something, but we can't really be blamed for that.

edit: I don't think any of this will happen in our life times.

[Human Snorenado]

I'm not really sure, but if things keep going at this rate the world is going to be short one nephew in about five minutes.  People have these things on purpose?  What the fuck is wrong with you assholes?

[Vertigo]

I think certain smaller places will be 'fine' I always get a chill when I watch this movie especially this part

As I think it's pretty close to the bone

[ToxicAdam]

Even if some scourge killed a billion of us, we would still march on. And recuperate fairly quickly.

[drew]

Sure maybe a virus wipes out a huge portion of the population, but that's not really mankind destroying itself, that's bad luck with nature.

there's nothing natural about the weaponized shit they concoct at protected US labs.  They're also planning to relocate one of their biggest installations from an island to the middle of the country to a state where they raise a lot of livestock and farm fields.  I think an accident involving one of these labs is much more of a sure thing than nature coming up with something on it's own. because people will be people.