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I find it strange that they seem to rule out asteroid impacts as a threat just because it is unlikely to happen within this century. They are unlikely to happen

I find it strange that they seem to rule out asteroid impacts as a threat just because it is unlikely to happen within this century. They are unlikely to happen in any century but still do happen from time to time on a universe-scale timeline, and have been responsible for mass-extinction events in the past.

Aardwolf 13y ago
I think asteroid impacts only start to be statistically significant over timespans of millions of years. Humanity only lived a few 100k years. Do you think we have millions of years to go? Also, if we would indeed remain millions of years, and assuming continuous progress, I don't think an asteroid impact is a threat to that advanced human society, it's a simple matter or deflecting it/mining it until it's empty. And in fact, forget about the deflecting and mining, that is maybe relevant in 10000 years. But in millions years, if we make it that long, I think human society will exist out of parts of civilization, technology, machine and mind floating around everywhere in the galaxy, spreading out at some rate. What does a single asteroid in some solar system even matter to that at all??
pgsandstrom 13y ago
The time window from today until we can handle any asteroid threat is most likely small, given no other civilization ending catastrophy takes place. I would be very surprised if we can't redirect incoming asteroids in 500 years.
guard-of-terra 13y ago
It's very hard to kill every single human with an asteroid. It should be a really huge, planet-busting asteroid. A planetoid, really. Those are rare. And even if you have 1000 humans surviving, it didn't happen. What helps humans over dinosaurs: humans can live in extreme conditions (dinosaurs are very picky), and humans can conserve food outside of their bodies and live on it for a long time. Humans are small and adaptable, dinosaurs are large and very fragile, as all big animals are.

Aardwolf 13y ago

I think asteroid impacts only start to be statistically significant over timespans of millions of years. Humanity only lived a few 100k years. Do you think we have millions of years to go? Also, if we would indeed remain millions of years, and assuming continuous progress, I don't think an asteroid impact is a threat to that advanced human society, it's a simple matter or deflecting it/mining it until it's empty. And in fact, forget about the deflecting and mining, that is maybe relevant in 10000 years. But in millions years, if we make it that long, I think human society will exist out of parts of civilization, technology, machine and mind floating around everywhere in the galaxy, spreading out at some rate. What does a single asteroid in some solar system even matter to that at all??

pgsandstrom 13y ago

The time window from today until we can handle any asteroid threat is most likely small, given no other civilization ending catastrophy takes place. I would be very surprised if we can't redirect incoming asteroids in 500 years.

guard-of-terra 13y ago

It's very hard to kill every single human with an asteroid. It should be a really huge, planet-busting asteroid. A planetoid, really. Those are rare. And even if you have 1000 humans surviving, it didn't happen. What helps humans over dinosaurs: humans can live in extreme conditions (dinosaurs are very picky), and humans can conserve food outside of their bodies and live on it for a long time. Humans are small and adaptable, dinosaurs are large and very fragile, as all big animals are.