Humans' Brush with Extinction
Thu, 2008-04-24 13:03
#1
Sven
Humans' Brush with Extinction
Thu, 2008-04-24 13:03
#2
Sven
[url=http://www.startribune.com/science/18138904.html]Humans almost became extinct about 70,000 years ago.[/url]
Fri, 2008-04-25 01:44
#3
quote:
"This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence, said in a statement.
Ironic -- the same technology may conceivably kill us all off, eg by permitting the development of uncontrollable biological weapons.
Wed, 2012-03-21 04:34
#4
We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction
What the hell is an existential risk? And guess how many people have ever lived in total? Nick Bostrom of the Future of Humanity Institute estimates the number to be ...read on.
Nuclear war, printers capable of producing Spanish influenza, nanopathogens, Orwellian dictatorships, by gum! The future sounds like hell on earth. Will we make it? Is world population today only a tiny number compared to possible future numbers? This Nick Bostrom person is one scary dude.
Sun, 2012-03-25 11:01
#5
I think there's a possibility we might be headed for self-destruction once more. While we have the technology to do many things, human history has proven to be racked with either wars or carelessness.
On a semi-related note I seem to remember someone on TV - might have been Carl Sagan - remarking that there could possibly hundred thousand civilizations in our galaxy alone, (The Milky Way has 200-400 billion stars and possibly 10 billion habitable planets so 100,000 is 1% of 1%) but the reason why we never see anyone is because of astronomical time scales, and most civilizations wipe themselves out before being able to make first contact with others.
Sun, 2012-03-25 15:40
#6
Nathaniel, you're thinking of the Drake Equation - I wouldn't be surprised if Sagan had referenced it.
Sun, 2012-03-25 17:36
#7
...but the reason why we never see anyone is because of astronomical time scales, and most civilizations wipe themselves out before being able to make first contact with others.
Some scientists have said that there could be good reasons why we have not had official face to face contact. Others have actually said that there has been contact decades ago. And there is physical evidence of UFOs with some significant percentage of them remaining unexplained and baffling scientific explanation. I say evidence and not hard proof of ET, an important distinction that prevents others from calling me derogatory names.
But yes there could be all kinds of reasons for lack of contact. Evolution looms large imo. For instance, what could we possibly say to a macaque monkey or an ant colony situated on a meridian of a six lane highway? Would they even know that it is a highway? This is Michio kaku's analogy for SETI's search for ET communications.
Another scientist points to WW II efforts between the two opposing sides to decipher each other's military communications here on the same planet. One side was successful by using a group effort while the other was not so. Same species, same planet, and lots of frustration on one side for their attempts to decipher. There could be good reasons for maintaining radio silence.
Mon, 2012-03-26 15:45
#8
Nathaniel, you're thinking of the Drake Equation - I wouldn't be surprised if Sagan had referenced it.
"Carl Sagan, a great proponent of SETI, quoted the formula often and as a result the formula is sometimes mislabeled as "The Sagan Equation.""
Mon, 2012-03-26 19:55
#9
Yes, Sagan said that Drake's low estimate of technical civilizations is premised on the assumption that only a small percentage of possibly advanced civilizations survive technological growth phase, or the last parameter in the eq'n: F sub-L = 1/100 million (about 100 years). Will we destroy ourselves in the next 50 or 100 hundred years?
But Sagan asked the question, What if not ALL technically advanced civilizations destroy themselves soon after developing? What if just a tiny fraction of technically advanced civilizations survive their own technological adolescence? What if the fraction of a planet's life during which the advanced civilization survives is just 1% or F sub-L =1/100 (about 100 million years) ?
In that case N would be equal to millions in just the Milky Way galaxy, our backyard.