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Earth's path through the universe slaloms through asteroids. It is not a question of if humanity gets reset, it is a question of when.
by kryogen1c 2y ago
Earth's path through the universe slaloms through asteroids. It is not a question of if humanity gets reset, it is a question of when.
- dustingetz 2y agobroadly Jupiter is sheltering Earth from asteroids, to such great extent that it may be a prerequisite to life that habitable water planets share the system with a gas giant. Certainly you’re right that this solution is not perfect.
- vikingerik 2y agoBit of a nitpick - Jupiter tends to shield the inner solar system from comets that originate far out, but not necessarily asteroids. For bodies in the asteroid belt, there's some thought that Jupiter perturbs as many to a perihelion near Earth's orbit as it diverts away. And without Jupiter, the asteroid belt itself would have accreted into a terrestrial planet instead of remaining loose. Jupiter's overall effect on shielding Earth is uncertain.
- Retric 2y agoA reset requires enough people to survive the event for humanity to bounce back, while also forgetting everything they know about science and technology. Huge asteroid impact could kill us all, but it doesn’t seem obvious how it could cause a reset to zero.