Will life on Earth end?

[samroski]

1. Do you believe life (human) on Earth will end?

 

2. Do you have a religious belief in the Apocalypse? (Do you believe in an Antichrist and such?)

 

3. Do you believe that an end is coming soon?

 

4. What will end life (again, human) on Earth?

 

 

1. Yes- the sun will go supernova in about 4 or 5 million years- and will expand to where Mars is now (before contracting to become a red giant)- and earth will evaporate- and thus all life "on" earth will definitely end. I was thinking on the lines of shipping hydrogen to the sun to keep it going a while longer- but that is a bit premature at this point in time.

 

2. Not sure about this question- as am unfamiliar with the terms used.

 

3. "The end" is human death, and in cosmic terms it is coming pretty soon...

 

4. See answer to 1.

[ninja_lord666]

1. Yes- the sun will go supernova in about 4 or 5 million years- and will expand to where Mars is now (before contracting to become a red giant)- and earth will evaporate- and thus all life "on" earth will definitely end. I was thinking on the lines of shipping hydrogen to the sun to keep it going a while longer- but that is a bit premature at this point in time.

That would be 4 or 5 billion years, and our sun doesn't have enough mass to become a super nova. Instead, it will enter the red giant stage. Also, it will only expand out to Earth's orbit. Shipping hydrogen to the sun? That's completely unrealistic. For one, we'd need to ship trillions of tons of hydrogen every day. We could never possibly find that much hydrogen, build a ship to contain that much hydrogen, or build a ship to resist the sun's temperature long enough to get within rage where the sun's gravity will engulf the hydrogen.

 

2. Not sure about this question- as am unfamiliar with the terms used.

Apocalypse (Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις -translit. apoca'lipsis, meaning literally: the lifting of the veil), is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to mean "End of planet Earth", which may be a shortening of the phrase apokalupsis eschaton which literally means "revelation at the end of the æon, or age".

 

Another provided definition is: Apocalypse apoc·a·lypse Pronunciation: \ə-ˈpä-kə-ˌlips\

Etymology: Middle English, revelation, Revelation, from Anglo-French apocalipse, from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokalypsis, from apokalyptein to uncover, from apo- + kalyptein to cover. Date:13th century.

 

1: a) one of the Jewish and Christian writings of B.C. 200 to A.D. 150 marked by pseudonymity, symbolic imagery, and the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom; b) capitalized : the Book of Revelation.

2: a) something viewed as a prophetic revelation; b) armageddon.

3: great disaster (an environmental apocalypse).

[samroski]

That would be 4 or 5 billion years, and our sun doesn't have enough mass to become a super nova. Instead, it will enter the red giant stage. Also, it will only expand out to Earth's orbit. Shipping hydrogen to the sun? That's completely unrealistic. For one, we'd

 

Apocalypse (Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις -translit. apoca'lipsis, meaning literally: the lifting of the veil), is a term applied to the

 

Thank you for the correction (i.e. billion and not million) - and I am sorry to hear that there won't be a supernova (love fireworks)

 

About shipping hydrogen to the sun- well that was truly said in jest :) - but I DO believe that if humans survive for another few billion years they will evolve enough to figure out how to create suns- let alone save ours- possibly using methods to transfer matter directly to the sun from elsewhere (possibly using these "paths" that I think may already exist in the universe that will allow faster than light travel), if required- would probably not need a disintegrating planet like earth anymore.

 

Thank you also for the definition of apocalypse- had a vague idea that it meant something like the end of everything. I like the idea of "lifting of the veil". The question (no.2) then basically asks whether one believes in God/afterlife- as nearly everyone who believes in one of the major religions will believe that the things as they are now will end and the veil will lift :)

 

Fortunately I still do not have an opinion on this :)

 

Also am pretty ashamed that I never looked up the meaning of the word earlier- having seen (and enjoyed) "Apocalypse Now" about 20 years ago

[ninja_lord666]

Thank you for the correction (i.e. billion and not million) - and I am sorry to hear that there won't be a supernova (love fireworks)

 

About shipping hydrogen to the sun- well that was truly said in jest :) - but I DO believe that if humans survive for another few billion years they will evolve enough to figure out how to create suns- let alone save ours- possibly using methods to transfer matter directly to the sun from elsewhere (possibly using these "paths" that I think may already exist in the universe that will allow faster than light travel), if required- would probably not need a disintegrating planet like earth anymore.

Earth will be too hot to be inhabitable in about 900 million years, so we won't see the end of the sun anyways.

 

Like I said, Earth will be uninhabitable in about 900 million years. By then we'd have colonised other planets though...Anyways, I don't think humans will even survive that long. 900 million years is a long time. By then, the creature that evolves from humans will have most likely evolved, and maybe that would have evolved, too. I believe that in a few hundred years, humans will have colonised planets in other solar systems. Then, millions of years after that, those humans will have evolved. Seeing as how they're on different planets, they'd branch off into different evolutions based upon the planet they're on. The new descendants of humans will continue expanding and eventually form a Galactic Government, probably some sort of Democratic Republic with robotic representatives and leaders. Robots can't fall to corruption...They may take drastic measures but not corruption. As long as they follow the three rules of robotics, everything will be fine...By then, humans will be ancient history.

 

As for those "paths," I think you are referring to wormholes.

In physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that is essentially a 'shortcut' through space and time. A wormhole has at least two mouths which are connected to a single throat or tube. If the wormhole is traversable, matter can 'travel' from one mouth to the other by passing through the throat. While there is no observational evidence for wormholes, spacetimes containing wormholes are known to be valid solutions in general relativity.

 

...

 

The name "wormhole" comes from an analogy used to explain the phenomenon. If a worm is travelling over the skin of an apple, then the worm could take a shortcut to the opposite side of the apple's skin by burrowing through its center, rather than travelling the entire distance around, just as a wormhole traveler could take a shortcut to the opposite side of the universe through a topologically nontrivial tunnel

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Worm3.jpg

[TheTerminator2004]

1) I agree- the sun will probably collapse into a red giant in a few billion years.

2) No, I am in no way religious.

3) See answer to question 1- a few billion years, depending on whether what we will evolve into could be classed as human or not.

4) See answer to question 1 again.

[samroski]

As for those "paths," I think you are referring to wormholes.

 

Yes- wormholes are the thingy (or something very similar)- though I was thinking about a reference from a religious scripture when I mentioned these "paths" in space

[worm82075]

1. Do you believe life (human) on Earth will end?

 

Earth will inevitably come to an end so we can't stay here forever. Long before any cosmic events render this planet inhabitable or evolution forever alters our human g-nome we will have used up all of the resources available and Earth will look much like Mars. That is if we can dodge earth's natural cycles of heat and cold. Given the grand scale of earths age it is expectantly arrogant of man to think he can predict what is normal by studying the past 200 years. Earth's orbit around the sun while you know is elliptical, it is also variable as is the tilt on it's axis. Neither of these paths is constant and Earth tends to fade in and out on a regular basis. Our scientists speculate what those patterns are but are unsure as to the exact time, which is why they can not predict the event. Variable#1-The Earth wobbles on its axis about every 3500 to 5000 years and when this happens the northern hemisphere leans away from the sun. Variable#2-The earths orbit around the sun has a center shift once every 7500-10000 years and when this happens, two opposing points in the orbit change distance from the sun, one closer and one farther. When these two variables coincide with each other the event will occur. With these figures science has narrowed the occurrence down to 30,000-50,000 years apart. Knowing the last occurrence was just over 30,000 years ago, I would say we are due any time in the next 20,000 years. Although no matter how hard we try to kill ourselves, someone will survive, so i don't think an ice age will do us in either. Odds are we will not succumb to the same fate as the dinosaurs either, because I think we can survive nuclear winter caused by an enormous meteorite or by nuclear fallout, with all our current technologies, but they will be lost in the process and mankind will just have to start from scratch. I theorize that this has happened before and would explain the advanced knowledge of ancient cultures. It takes the very technology to retain the knowledge of itself and pass it on. However, since there are no fossil records suggesting we started over here, then it is most likely we started over while colonizing this planet. If we are lucky we will successfully repeat the cycle some where else and continue on to the next phase of evolution.

 

2. Do you have a religious belief in the Apocalypse? (Do you believe in an Antichrist and such?)

 

Do I believe in a god as described by any religion? No. Am I An Atheist? No. While I do believe in a singular supreme being (someone had to write the code for DNA), I do not think he exists inside of our universe. If he did then he would have been created with it and therefor, even if he created man, he still would not be the one true god. Modern religion in all of it's incarnations, though some purer than others, all root back to about the same time. A time when a large group of scholars and historians all collaborated on the greatest story ever told. It was a great idea to give a lost and lonely mankind a sense of purpose and worth. The tyrants of that time did their best to stop it, but man being decent as a whole naturally embraced the love thy neighbor philosophy of all major religions. But evil always finds a way to balance the scale and these same tyrants that fought to stop religion now embraced it as an alternative method of controlling the masses. More men have died in the name of god and their religion than all other wars, disease, natural disasters, and yes even natural death combined. This has steadily declined over the past 400-500 years. The United States was formed by individuals who were trying to escape what was left of this tyranny and the very reason we have a separation of church and state is to prevent this type of control. However evil has found a way to balance the scale once more and can be seen in every facet of our government. Yours too, cause it doesn't matter where you live someone is controlling your thoughts and actions on some level. But this too is on a decline and provided we continue to police ourselves and snuff out any threats to the goal, I can see a world united in as little as 7-10 generations. Mankind needs to put aside all segregations of society and allow the mixing pot to overflow with the male without a father mutts of our unified tomorrow. Don't try to preserve your culture's bloodline by marring within your race, instead donate it to the giant gene pool cocktail that we all need to take that next step toward evolution and unity. Marry outside your race(statistically, your children will be smarter) and outside your religion too if possible(2 out of 5 children of mixed religion marriages don't follow either of their parents faith). Once we are rid of religion we will be free of war and can concentrate on the stars, where our one and only hope for survival lies.

 

3. Do you believe that an end is coming soon?

 

An end? Yes. The end? No. Mankind will persevere one way or another.(see #1)

 

4. What will end life (again, human) on Earth?

 

see #1

[leetgamer]

1. Life on Earth will end. But that doesn't mean life on other universes in cosmos will. I don't really know about other universes, if they have suns or not. We, after a few billion years, might have very high and advance technology to probably combat what possible natural catastrophies will come. It's not just the sun that might cause human extinction, it might also be like a great plague.. or the earth cracks in two from underneath.. or something. Also, if that doesn't happen, our technology level will be so advance that we might be able to teleport into another universe to avoid cataclysm.

 

It is impossible to live in a very small peace of what god created. You can go with a spaceship 24/7 for a billion years and still not even see the smallest part of this great wide universe. Anyways, like I said, I do beleive life will end here. Probably a huge meteorite will strike the earth or something and the planet will explode. Or it might also be caused by us, global warming, pollution and such.

 

The future is unpredictable. There are many ways for life to end here.

 

2. No, I do not. For as long as I live, I shall be Orthodox. Antichrist is something.. that I truly detest.

 

3. The end on earth. There could be many other races out there, probably way more advanced than us. The end here will come, not the total end of everything.

 

4. Possibilities are uncountable. See 1

[arcano200]

1. yes

2. nope, we'll be blowing ourselves up by the time he gets here

3. -no comment-

4. god

[Duskrider]

1. Do you believe life (human) on Earth will end?

 

Yes. Given an infinite amount of time, the chance of catastrophic asteroid/comet impact approaches 100%. Given a very long, but very definitely finite, amount of time, the sun will eventually expand and consume the earth. Even if we move off the Earth to other planets/solar systems/etc, human life on Earth will eventually come to an end. In fact, human life itself will inevitably come to an end, as a consequence of fundamental laws of physics. If the universe does not expand infinitely and eventually collapses, the fate of humanity is pretty obvious. If the universe does continue to expand, entropy wins, and life becomes impossible in the heat-death of the universe.

 

In summary: physics always wins. We might live a very long time, beyond the comprehension of any (current) human mind, but eventually it all ends.

 

2. Do you have a religious belief in the Apocalypse? (Do you believe in an Antichrist and such?)

 

No. I am not an idiot. Primitive fairy tales originating in a lack of understanding of the universe do not impress me, and religion's (along with astrology, countless "psychics", etc) long history of predicting the impending apocalypse doesn't exactly help. People have been claiming the universe is going to end within their lifetimes for all of written history, and I doubt the practice started just because we figured out how to write down our nonsense. However, despite thousands of years of impending apocalypses, here I am, very much alive.

 

3. Do you believe that an end is coming soon?

 

No. Thanks to the wonders of modern astronomy and physics, we can be fairly sure that a total extinction level impact is not in our immediate future. All of the present threats for the forseeable future are inadequate to end all human life. While nuclear war, collapse of civilization due to lack of oil, global warming, etc, are all frightening threats, humans are much harder to kill than most people think. Sure, we might completely wreck our advanced civilization and descend into a new dark age that would make all of us prefer to be dead, but there will still be humans.

 

4. What will end life (again, human) on Earth?

 

See points #1 and #3 above. Either catastrophic comet/asteroid impact, or the eventual death of the sun. Any lesser disaster will just kill a lot of people and make life really suck for the survivors, but will not do the job of total extinction.