Possible ways the world could end
Submitted by darktremor on Fri, 02/27/2004 - 02:16
Tags:
- I don't actually think any of these will ever happen, but since people love talking about the end of the world, and we don't have a list like this here. So I decided to list all the possibilities. Many are exaggerations. I wouldn't take this too seriously.
- A meteor hits the surface of the planet. All life is obliterated.
- A nearly star, maybe even the sun, explodes, showering earth with radiation
- The environmental damage to Earth continues, eventually making our planet unlivable. We slowly die out.
- Aliens atttack the earth, slaughtering us all in an invasion.
- The Core stops spinning. We are showered with radiation
- Another species emerges as the dominant one on earth, maybe through genetic engineering by us. It obliterates us.
- A biblical apocalypse occurs.
- An extremely lethal virus wipes us out. Maybe AIDS becomes airborne, or ebola gets out of control
- A time paradox is created.
- A black hole enters our solar system.
- Whatever entity created us decides he's bored of the universe and so ends it.
- The universe is someone's thought. Said being stops thinking it.
- A verifiable message somehow reaches us, stating that when you die, you go to an absolute paradise no matter what, and a mass suicide cult leads everyone to take their lives.
- The icecaps melt, covering most of the earth in water.
- Another ice age falls, eventually starving humanity to death.
- A rip in the fabric of space forms just outside the earth, and we are annihilated in the process.
- Our universe runs into another, causing both to be obliterated, or severly damaged to the point of being unable to support life.
- Our galaxy collides with another, destroying the earth.
- The entire water supply of the earth is poisoned.
- Y3K occurs in the year 10000. The computers all stop running, which causes the world to end, since by that year, computers will probably control everything. Humans will then have no where to get food, nothing to pump their water, recycle their air, etc.
- We develop AI. The computers we put AI into then rebel against us, and enslave humanity (or just wipe us out).
- Our entire world turns out to be a dream. In reality, we are on a completely different world, and all of us are just trapped in a mass hallucination, and the schitzophrenics turn out to be the people who are seeing reality for what it really is - seeing through the hallucination.
- World War 3 erupts. Whether nukes are used or not, we are wiped out.
- A masive volcano erupts, blocking out the sun worldwide for hundreds of years, bringing on the same effect as nucleur winter.
- The HAB theory comes true - due to the weight of the ice building up on the earth's poles, they become unbalanced, and eventually the entire earth's crust shifts, causing Antarctica to reside on the equator, etc etc. (there's a LOT of evidence for this one - for example, archaeologists found detailed maps of Antarctica that are thousands of years old. When we scan the surface of Antarctica with lasers, what we find matches the ancient maps (most famously, the Pyri Reis map - I don't know if that's the right spelling. Some people say Atlantis was Antarctica before the shift. Also there are some geological records). But, even if this did happen once, it's not likely to happen again, because of global warming melting the poles.
- The animals rebel, and go on a human-killing rampage.
- The laws of physics reverse, and Earth's atmosphere is sucked into space.
- A giant solar flare consumes the Earth
- A particle accelerator goes wrong, setting off a chain reaction that destroys the entire world.
- Mass insanity. Eventually the insane outnumber the sane, and the world collapes. Actually, this may have already happened.
- Humans eventually evolve into something else, over millions of years. However, the earth can't handle our new form, which is somehow even more parasitic than we are now, and the world collapses under the stresses we put on it.
- We turn out to be an genetic experiment made by aliens. The experiment then ends.
- A nanotechnology disaster occurs (ie a nanomachine plant explodes in the future), causing millions of nanobots to be released into nature, which reproduce unchecked while consuming everything in the biosphere. All life is wiped off the surface in a matter of weeks.
- The universe turns out to be a bubble in a much larger world. The bubble pops.
- The universe turns out to be an atom in a much larger world. The atom is smashed in a particle accelerator, or torn apart in a fission reaction.
- Energy suddenly stops working. All the atoms decay, causing all existence to be reduced to nothingness.
- The vacuum balance of space stabilizes further (it was unstable in the beginning of the universe - filled with energy rather than nothingness), causing an energy blast that destroys everything in it's path.
- A world dictatorship is formed, and everyone born is given an implant chip to track and kill them for thinking any unpatriotic thoughts, through electrical shocks. The leader then goes insane, and orders every chip be activated. Humanity is annihilated.
- A worldwide announcement system is set up. However, a mistake is made in the broadcasting, and we are all forced to endlessly listen to country music.
- Sex is outlawed worlwide.
- A bizarre demon is summoned through some sort of pagan ritual, which then obliterates the earth.
- Human technology advances to the point that we can create an absolute paradise world inside a machine, which will never break down. We then all download ourselves into that machine, and live in a state of eternal, unchanging bliss.
- Men start having periods.
- Hell fills up, and the Dead walk the earth. (Oh George Romero)
- Cochroaches realize they outnumber us several thousand to one, and rebel against their human masters.
- A bunch of people get degrees in 16th century French poetry. The only thing to do with this degree, is teach other people 16th century French poetry, which they will do...and their students will do the same...and so on, until everyone on earth is a 16th century French poetry teacher. The economy will crash, but it won't even matter by that point, because the world's currency will be 16th century French poems rather than money. Society will unravel by the seams, and the survivors will be unable to rebuild our world as they fall into an obscure poem-reciting stupor, and eventually die.
- Scenarios that are actually possible:
- Rapid climate change occurs, and the world is rapidly turned into an ice planet, when the cold water from melting icecaps halts the ocean currents. (The Day After Tomorrow was based on this possible premise, albiet exagerrrated)
- The Middle Eastern scenario escalates, until War 3 is started. No one survives the ensuing conflict. Many US military analysts are already predicting World War 3 may result from the current Hezbollah and Israel conflict, if current alliances continue the way they are.
- A rogue nation develops nucleur arms. Unaware of the Nash equilibrium required of possessing nucleur arms, it launches them. Nucleur war ensues, and the world is obliterated. This is already happening (possibly) in North Korea, Iran, and a few other tiny nations.
- Humanity becomes unable to produce the amount of oil it requires to keep the economy running. Civilization and industrialization, forcing us to live in a permanent hunter-gatherer and/or early agricultural society. Surprisingly, this is already happening, and will end civilization if alternate resources are not developed in the very near future
- These aren't my beliefs - I honestly don't think some of them are even possible (ie a biblical apocalypse), nor do I think the ones that are are actually going to happen. Just exploring possibilities. Send me suggestions of things I forgot. (BTW this isn't a "televison" type list - they just don't have a "general" category, so I stuck it under television, since I'll probably never make a TV related list. (I like movies much better - I never have enough time to follow TV shows)
Aw c'mon, I just watched Waterworld so I know we'll weather the ice caps melting.
The "poisoned water supply" one reminds me of Vonnegut's "Ice-9" disaster.
How can I get such a big kick out of such a depressing list?
The Cat's Cradle is one of my favorite stories!
George W Bush is "elected" to second term? That could start the ball rollin'
Amen to that.
Boy, would have been nice to have signed that Kyoto Treaty. I know our environmental problems wouldn't have gone away if we had, but still at least we'd be going in the right direction, instead of marching backwards to the dawn of primates. Or even as far backwards the Middle Ages, where you could burned at a stake for having hiccups. But hey Bush has a direct line to God. He must, he's against gay marriage. And stem-cell research.
Man, I think the drugs are making you paranoid. :-)
Lol.
I like the list. it's thought-provoking, and it makes for good scenarios in science fiction movies.
BTW, how do you make a list in the "other" category? I tried for a while, but couldn't find an option to put a list there.
Any custom genre that's not movies/books/music/tv is lumped under "other". You can create custom genres by clicking on "My Menu" above, and then "Genres."
Thanks.
Ha! Great list!
How about this, which has been chosen as the most urgent world-ending environmental problem by the world's top scientists:
The human race overpopulates the earth, consuming all its natural resources too quickly for them to recover, and we all die.
Well, I have different forms of that on the list. That and consuming natural resources wouldn't wipe us out - it would just prevent us from running many of our technologies, and force us to quickly adapt with different forms of energy. The closest version is this:
The environmental damage to Earth continues, eventually making our planet unlivable. We slowly die out.
Good suggestion though! I might add it anyway...
Here is a fantastic, related page.
Heh - that's awesome.
Thanks for the link :)
no mention of an evil genius and his wacky plan to take over or end the world? not sure exaclty how he would do it... but giant magnets or lazer beams are usually in order... or maybe a hypnotic device
I've always enjoyed a scenario where the earth falls slowly out of orbit and starts drifting toward the sun. Over a period of a week or so, tempatures start creeping up, up, up, until all moisture is evaporated and there is no shelter. I always wonder if it could get to the point where those with glasses would suffer first because the sun's rays would be magnified, causing the eyes of the bespectacled to literally burst into flames.
Johnny Waco (chuckling to himself, even though he is wearing glasses)
what about the south park episode where the boys find out that earth was really just a reality show aired throughout the universe where some television station decided to put species from hundreds of different planets to live together in a place called "earth" for their viewing pleasure... one day earthlings find out they are on tv and ratings drop, earth is scheduled for demolition... the world ends because it got bad ratings.
thats my favorite theory of all the ones i've heard... also a funny SP episode... i love when the humans find out their lives are just a reality show one guy stands up in the crowd and says "dear god... I'm famous! wooo! i'm on tv!"
i take that back... my favorite is still the 16th century french poetry one.
heehee.
What about killer bees?
lol great list, i guess we'll just have to enjoy the world while it lasts lol
hi
1 Men's sperm count is known to be decreasing slightly over past recorded history. If it continues men will produce too few sperms in a few hundred years to sustain the species. humankind becomes extinct.
2 People become incresingly gay for tax benefits and they forget to reproduce. Human species becomes extinct.
I can't see that second one ever happening. Ever. Nor do I think it's even possible. Conservative propaganda would like you to think it is, but being gay is genetic, and a reccessive trait, and therefore will never take over.
The first one either: artifical pregnancy techniques are getting too good.