You have heard Al Gore carp on about the climate crisis, and his lofty call that: “We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization.” Without the environment, the argument goes, we won’t be around to worry about all that other stuff.
The problem with big picture threats like climate change is that they are hard to securitize. Environmental disaster is just too abstract for Joe Sixpack, whereas a suicide bombing on the local train is all too real (to the point of paranoia). Maybe people are just naturally more worried about the malice of other humans than their natural environment. The universe isn’t considered to harbour deadly intent.
Nevertheless, big picture threats are real. Unfortunately, debating them tends to lead to a near infinite recursion. Limiting ourselves to threats against the planet as a whole (what some call geocide), there are quite a few that are on the level climate — or worse.
Stephen Petranek lists ten doomsday scenarios at the February 2002 TED conference. To his credit, Petranek also offers solutions for each threat. Granted, this frequently involves leaving everything behind and becoming a space-faring nation, but I have no problem with that: I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. Below is Mr Petranek’s speech. I have included the entire list of threats below so that we may refer to them in discussion, but have done so after the fold so as not to reveal any spoilers. Enjoy.
(approx 30 mins)
- 10 We lose the will to survive
- 9 Aliens invade
- 8 Ecosystem collapses
- 7 Particle accelerator mishap
- 6 Biotech disaster
- 5 Reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field
- 4 Giant solar flares
- 3 New global epidemic
- 2 Rogue black hole
- 1 A really big asteroid
- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
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COMMENTS / 7 COMMENTS
Elambend added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 2:18 amNumbers 5, 3, and 1 have happened before, indeed number 5 happens with some kind of (geological) regularity. I’d bump it up, but I’d make 3 number 1.
Curzon added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 4:42 am9 actually made me think pretty hard. How does a technologically inferior species begin negotiations with an advanced and potentially hostile species? Certainly human history (not just Western, silly) makes it clear that the rule on our planet is that only the strong survive.
TS added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 5:09 amNumbers 7 & 2 could be right around the corner!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
Less than a month, in fact, before humans (might) create an artificial black hole that exists for a minuscule fraction of a second, but which swallows our planet and then some. Most reputable scientists don’t actually think that’s plausible, but those are the boring scientists. My money’s on #3, though.
a added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 3:20 pm20 million died worldwide from the flu pandemic of 1918, not just in the United States as he makes it sound like. And how many are his ‘favorites?’
jnesepa added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 3:38 pmThe speaker’s premise for highlighting threats to humanity needs to be questioned. He mentions how colonizers have trampled upon others here on Earth. If we do somehow become a ‘space-faring race’ (which is highly probable given energy restraints,) is it conceivable we would treat less advanced races any better? If we come upon a planet with DNA floating in a primordial soup (but that was habitable) by his logic, we would zap any stray genetic strand and set up shop there.
There is also the underlying philosophical nature of his arguments. In the modern age, people scoff at the alchemists of yore who sought out immortality. We now acknowledge that a single person living forever is highly unlikely. Would not the same apply to the whole of humanity? I’m not saying the human race shouldn’t preserve itself as long as possible, but that it must also
acknowledge that there will be a time in the future where there is no human consciousness in the wider universe.The final point I’d like to make is that if the energy barriers to colonizing space are ever overcome, that at some point in the future, there would exist different ‘humanities’ and eventually different species all together. Paleoanthropologists have highlighted this through their reconstruction of the story of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Evolutionary biologists have proved, almost without a doubt, how this would happen. Once a population is separated by interstellar distances, there is no way genetic intermingling could happen. So, basically, there is absolutely no way for human consciousness to a) continue forever and at also b) propagate itself across the galaxy.
jnesepa added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 3:44 pmsorry, becoming a space faring race is ‘highly improbable’ given energy restraints.
von Kaufman-Turkestansky added these pithy words on 27 Aug 08 at 6:59 pm“GeÖcide” would make a good name for a Death Doom Metal band. Heavy metal umlauts, cookie-monster vocals, a generalized sense of malaise (see No. 10 – which, by the way, may be the cause of a previous mass extinction – see the reference to palaeloweltschmerz in http://dml.cmnh.org/1995Jan/msg00148.html) – let’s call the first album Uncontrolled Global Weltschmerz…
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