How long does civilisation on planet earth have left

MementoMori

So I was wondering what the general consensus is on how long civilisation has left on the planet before humanity goes extinct?

Please provide you best guess - do we have a year, five years, ten years, a century, a 1000 years, 5000 years or 10000 years left on the planet?

For bonus points what do you reckon will do us in?

chin_grin

Terminators.

And Mars is getting closer to being colonised. Three boobied mutants FTW!

AnonoBoy

As long as it stretches until Monday I'll be happy. Wouldn't want to miss the Picnic.

Gummy Panda

Till tuesday

petes

Fcuk knows.

Daroxtar

We're civilised?

pikachucheeks

Ask Stephen Hawking?
He knows everything!

MementoMori

Now with added poll

rockmongrel

As long as we keep going for the next 70 or 80 years I'm happy, let me live out my days.

chin_grin

pikachucheeks wrote: »

Ask Stephen Hawking?
He knows everything!

Does he know how to walk? Ha! Go basic motor skills!

El Weirdo

1hr 50mins.

cathysworld

A Thousand Years

Check out that great song Infinity by "Guru" Josh, if anyone knows it's him!

I would say hoomans have about 500 years left, by then absolutely everything will have been discussed on boards.ie and nobody will care to live anymore....

It will feel like the end of the world on Monday after 3 days at Electric Picnic :pac:

pikachucheeks

chin_grin wrote: »

Does he know how to walk? Ha! Go basic motor skills!

He's smart enough to use the Homer Simpson mentality ; using your legs is for suckers!

:P

Rented Mule

I guess you would have to ask Keith Richards in order to know for sure.

Once you guage how long he is going to live, you can ballpark the rest of humanity.

Biggins

A Thousand Years

500+

1000 if we are lucky.

Kradock

Till my God decides otherwise

ScumLord

Humans are survivors, we've survived just about everything mother nature has thrown at us and are better equipped than ever to deal with whatever else she decides to throw at us. If we do get off this planet and out of this solar system we're almost guaranteed to go on for hundreds of thousands of years. Bar a truly massive asteroid hitting earth or a black hole opening up beside us I think we're safe enough.

rossie1977

unless we experience a supernova or a giant meteoroid/comet collides with the earth killing everything even bacteria, its really impossible to tell, humans are living longer now than ever before, all out nuclear war wouldn't wipe out everyone, a great plague wouldn't wipe out everyone, many would still survive, in the stand captain trips even with a 99.4% mortality rate, many survived and there is no disease on earth with close to a 99% mortality rate

Mr. Presentable

Ahh, civilisation has been in decline and breaking down for about 200 years I'd say. But you probably mean humanity, in which case I'd say there will be human communities of one form or another for thousands of years yet, barring a planetary cataclysm.

ChocolateSauce

To infinity! Well okay, not that much, but I would say the chances of us surviving the death of our sun are high, assuming we can make it that far.

cathysworld

A Thousand Years

Two words-Chuck Norris!

Kradock

Kradock wrote: »

Till my God decides otherwise

I have spoken to him , he says we have 666 years left.

laoisforliam

Ten Years

http://www.2012forum.com/

Hugo Drax

First there was the dream, now there is reality. Here in the untainted cradle of the heavens will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens. You have been selected as its progenitors. Like gods, your offspring will return to Earth and shape it in their image. You have all served in public capacties in my terrestrial empire. Your seed, like yourselves, will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created. From their first day on Earth they will be able to look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens.

Canis Lupus

Five Thousand Years

ScumLord wrote: »

Humans are survivors, we've survived just about everything mother nature has thrown at us and are better equipped than ever to deal with whatever else she decides to throw at us. If we do get off this planet and out of this solar system we're almost guaranteed to go on for hundreds of thousands of years. Bar a truly massive asteroid hitting earth or a black hole opening up beside us I think we're safe enough.

I ponder sometimes what happens when an ice age kicks off again? Sure humans might survive but what kind of civilisation?

Hugo Drax

Eskimos would be in pole position for global dominance.

Kradock

Hugo Drax wrote: »

Eskimos would be in pole position for global dominance.

With Penguins as their inforcers

vestanpance

AnonoBoy wrote: »

As long as it stretches until Monday I'll be happy. Wouldn't want to miss the Picnic.

The teddy bears one?

Pygmalion

Infinity and Beyond

Barring something spectacular like a meteor strike, I'd say we last until the sun explodes or becomes too hot/cold to sustain life here.

Humans have survived tens of thousands of years in much worse conditions than there are now. There have never been so many of us and we're living longer and healthier lives.
Anyone who thinks we're going away anytime soon is pretty ignorant.

Oh as for the "but global warming will destroy us all" people, while it may have some pretty bad effects on the world and human civilisation, there are huge areas which will be affected very little, if at all. Potentially causing severe damage in coastal areas =/= destroying humanity

Hugo Drax

Actually it's quite likely that humanity will continue for millions of years.

But the point is that the humans of say, 1 million years time will bear as much resemblence to us as we do to prehistoric apemen, they will be physically unrecognisable to us as humans after another few hundred thousand years of evolution.

loveissucide

I'd see how we're fixed by Christmas before jumping to conclusion.I'd say 20-50 years.

biko

Five Hundred Years

I just hope it happens on a day when I'm hung over and miserable anyway.

Pygmalion

Infinity and Beyond

Hugo Drax wrote: »

Actually it's quite likely that humanity will continue for millions of years.

But the point is that the humans of say, 1 million years time will bear as much resemblence to us as we do to prehistoric apemen, they will be physically unrecognisable to us as humans after another few hundred thousand years of evolution.

I've always wondered whether they'll look back and see the computer/aeroplanes/whatever as primitive technology the way we do with stuff from thousands of years ago, or will they look back and think we did quite well by mastering these concepts.

Of course people in Ancient Egypt and Greece probably discussed this exact thing on whatever their equivalent of Boards was (Usenet?)

Canis Lupus

Five Thousand Years

Hugo Drax wrote: »

Actually it's quite likely that humanity will continue for millions of years.

But the point is that the humans of say, 1 million years time will bear as much resemblence to us as we do to prehistoric apemen, they will be physically unrecognisable to us as humans after another few hundred thousand years of evolution.

Will we? What evolutionary path are we as a species going to take when you take into account that women don't find guys with 10 eyes etc sexy? In what way do humans need to evolve to succeed when we're pretty much the dominant species already and our success at living is based on being good at office jobs primarily.

I suppose we could get smarter but I don't see us physically changing much.

Pygmalion

Infinity and Beyond

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Will we? What evolutionary path are we as a species going to take when you take into account that women don't find guys with 10 eyes etc sexy? In what way do humans need to evolve to succeed when we're pretty much the dominant species already and our success at living is based on being good at office jobs primarily.

I suppose we could get smarter but I don't see us physically changing much.

Prehistoric Apemen has the same number of eyes as us adn yet are very different in many ways, you realise that right?

And you could consider that we didn't change that much from them, same shape, same number of everything, generally same proportions and not too different in size.

Also the whole "natural selection" thing doesn't work when there are no predators to take out weak people, one of the premises of evolution is that random mutations occur, those with beneficial mutations live, those with bad ones don't... Nowadays with safety, social welfare, decent healthcare there's nothing to kill off anyone so all mutations, good and bad, will spread.

ScumLord

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I ponder sometimes what happens when an ice age kicks off again? Sure humans might survive but what kind of civilisation?

It'll be nothing more than an opportunity. If an ice age did kick in it would open up new land for agriculture and recreation, imagine if the centre of Africa where the sahara desert is became fertile land. As long as it takes longer than a generation or two humans will have no problem adapting and migrating to the most productive areas.

That's what we do, adapt and migrate, adapt. There's literally no environment that we can't take advantage of given time.

cathysworld

A Thousand Years

Canis Lupus

Five Thousand Years

Pygmalion wrote: »

Prehistoric Apemen has the same number of eyes as us adn yet are very different in many ways, you realise that right?

And you could consider that we didn't change that much from them, same shape, same number of everything, generally same proportions and not too different in size.

Also the whole "natural selection" thing doesn't work when there are no predators to take out weak people, one of the premises of evolution is that random mutations occur, those with beneficial mutations live, those with bad ones don't... Nowadays with safety, social welfare, decent healthcare there's nothing to kill off anyone so all mutations, good and bad, will spread.

I'd argue that early man was more of an animal which is why you see such changes to how we are today, they wouldn't have been concerned about what people think when they got with each other.

I reckon physical mutations good or bad won't happen from here on in. It's just not cricket to have babies with a freak nowadays regardless of how well he can keep a sabertoothed tiger from the door.

If technology advances and morals/ethics change as they do, I suppose you could see genetic screening and manipulation along with technological intergration. BORG FTW!

EDIT: Human evolution will be directed by our own doing rather than natural selection/process. Least that's my poorly educated guess.

Tea_Bag

Five Hundred Years

chin_grin wrote: »

Three boobied mutants FTW!

only if we can add another hand to our body.





i reckon we got 200-300 years. we are just so overpopulated at the moment i doubt the planet will sustain more than 10 or 12 billion people, which we will reach very quickly if we keep curing diseases.

rossie1977

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I ponder sometimes what happens when an ice age kicks off again? Sure humans might survive but what kind of civilisation?

the last ice age only affected canada, northern usa and northern europe, places like spain, france, italy, africa, mexico, south america were ice-free

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/aai-files/assets/libraries/an-chomhairle-leabharlanna/reading-room/physical-landscape/ice-age-europe.jpg

dimejinky99

Five Thousand Years

Stephen Hawking actually estimated in our current way of doing things, failing a major meteor strike or other catastrophe that we'd survive as a species for another 900 to 1000 years, but he also suggested we would have at least one worldwide major nuclear event(meaning war I assume) in this time but that it wouldn't put an end to us as a species but would change how we all live. Obviously.

pikachucheeks

cathysworld wrote: »

Two words-Chuck Norris!

Kradock wrote: »

I have spoken to him , he says we have 666 years left.

Really? Because when I spoke to him he said "I'm an over-rated tosser!"

:P

Turtwig

99% of the know species to inhabit this earth are extinct, so it's just a matter of time for homo sapiens.
Wonder if there'll be another more advanced species though....

This world could end at any time.

ScumLord

Tea_Bag wrote: »

only if we can add another hand to our body.





i reckon we got 200-300 years. we are just so overpopulated at the moment i doubt the planet will sustain more than 10 or 12 billion people, which we will reach very quickly if we keep curing diseases.

Even if we did over populate you'd just see the same thing that happens to bacteria happen. Numbers would fall back to a more manageable number. That may mean war and a huge amount of deaths but that won't stop civialisation, if anything it will only make us better as we come up with ways of avoiding it in the future. We've learned allot from the two major wars of the last century though, they pretty much united Europe and the US.

Daroxtar

We'll evolve and the new species will use us as fuel untill they run out and then thats them fukked too.

JONJO THE MISER

You know if there was a nuclear war leading to a nuclear winter the only place to survive would be Far northern canada and greenland.
Anyway forget nuclear winters by 1st January 2013 we will all be gone.

Professey Chin

Until I decide otherwise

*prepares doomsday device*

thomond2006

Infinity and Beyond

According to FF, the world will end when they lose power in government.

Must be why we continue to vote for the pr1cks. :mad:

My name is URL

Fifty Thousand Years

I went with 10,000 years.

There's a mass extinction event every 80,000,000 years or so.. and the Sun won't start to die for about 5,000,000,000 years so the chances of civilisation still been around by then are zero really.

We'll go the way of the Easter Islanders, exploting beyond repair our natural resources and turning to war to have whats left =D

Poor Uncle Tom

Between 500 and 1,000, I would say it will be man made this time, so it will be a shorter cycle. No one person, or group, should be capable of the destruction being carried out on this planet right now, imo.