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My favorite way to end civilization would be a gamma ray burst. It travels at the speed of light, so there's no way to know it's even approaching. And it'd prob
by sillysaurus3 9y ago
My favorite way to end civilization would be a gamma ray burst. It travels at the speed of light, so there's no way to know it's even approaching. And it'd probably irradiate the whole solar system, so a Mars colony wouldn't save us.
Hmm... What are some other tempting apocalyptic scenarios? Asteroids are so 1998.
One thing that's bugged me is being born so close to the invention of nuclear weapons. If we're a random sample in all of human history, then why were we born so close to the birth of nukes? If humans are going to be around for another few million years, it's a minuscule chance that we should be born right now instead of much later.
You might think there have been a hundred billion humans born, so that logic doesn't really work: it's a one-in-a-hundred-billion chance that we were born here anyway. But the population is spread out in a J curve over the course of eons. It's not evenly distributed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_argument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_argument
It's fun to waste time thinking about such things.
- saimiam 9y agoThere you go again, sillysaurus! Being born 65 million years ago didn't help you either. Maybe it's just you...
- yeldarb 9y agoWe are not a random sample in all human history. We are, by definition, the sample of population in human history alive at this moment. Us being here contemplating it says nothing of the probability of being born now vs some other time. Other than that its probability is now 1 because it has already happened.
- tyingq 9y ago>Hmm... What are some other tempting apocalyptic scenarios? Pretty good list here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Doomsday_scenarios https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Doomsday_scenarios Cobalt bomb is terrifying. Doesn't require WWIII to snuff us out. Edit: "gray goo" is also interesting. Self replicating nanobots run amok.
- quikoa 9y agoActually there is a way to know about a gamma ray burst before it's approaching. Thanks to neutrinos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_Early_Warning_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_Early_Warning_System