# A Poll: How will the human society end? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829 "2010-11-16T04:16:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/1 "2010-11-16T04:16:16Z")
The title pretty much says it, though if we evolve into another species (and another after that and on and on if necessary), for the purposes of this poll let’s continue to call our descendant species “human”. Also, if humanity reduced to a few tens of thousands of people scurrying around picking through rubble like rats, we’ll say that’s sufficient to count as the end of society. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/2 "2010-11-16T04:45:15Z")
I’d be pretty surprised if we got to the point of meaningful colonization of other worlds. And since even a full-scale thermonuclear war can’t kill everybody, it’s just a matter of time before a big rock hits us. Or something else from the stars, but I’m guessing a rock is more likely. Those things are everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/3 "2010-11-16T05:35:43Z")
I chose “the Human race will never end”. I think we are a pretty hardy stock, all things considered. Shit, many of us have NEANDERTHAL genes…I imagine OUR genes will be at least as persistent. Plus, I don’t go in for “end times” ideas much. Human “society” wil never end as long as there are humans around, even a relative few stragglers. We flock to one another like opposing magnetic poles. Obviously, this PLANET, solar system and even Universe will end someday, but I predict 1. humans will have colonized the far reaches by then and at least some DNA will survive and 2. the Universe ends…HELLO! You are getting into some crazy long-term shit there. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/4 "2010-11-16T05:45:00Z")
Seems to me that we will ultimately run out of resources and in the process destroy the environment for ourselves and many other species. Hope I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/5 "2010-11-16T18:51:42Z")
What **VarlosZ** said. Big rock from sky smash. ---
**Author:** ![Loisseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Loisseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loisseau)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/6 "2010-11-16T19:01:34Z")
The Earth will be incinerated as the Sun expands. Every living organism will be reduced carbon eons earlier. Behooves us to get off the orb in some sort of colony. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/7 "2010-11-16T19:08:01Z")
> **[Global catastrophic risk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_event)** > > A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical future event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, even endangering or destroying modern civilization. An event that could cause human extinction or permanently and drastically curtail humanity's potential is known as an "existential risk." > Over the last two decades, a number of academic and non-profit organizations have been established to research global catastrophic and existential risks, formulate potentia... I can’t find the link, which was from some other thread, that links to a gent’s TEOTWAWKI events, and one of them is my favorite. It is that our simulator is turned off, just like the matrix, except we don’t have bodies. The odds of our being inside a simulator are just too high to ignore, he wrote… Awesome. Anyone have the link? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/8 "2010-11-16T19:18:12Z")
> [@Loisseau](#): > > The Earth will be incinerated as the Sun expands. Every living organism will be reduced carbon eons earlier. Behooves us to get off the orb in some sort of colony. That just buys us another lousy 5 billion years or so. Hardly seems worth the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/9 "2010-11-17T01:55:56Z")
How come there are two of these polls? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/10 "2010-11-17T02:19:46Z")
I think Sunstone basically has it right. Most species go extinct simply by declining slowly and then just fail to reproduce and there is no reason to think otherwise. Of course, we have superior methods that could wipe us out. Say a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Or Iran and Israel. Or North Korea and just about anybody. The last shows that you don’t even need religion to bring it about. But it helps. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/11 "2010-11-17T02:28:51Z")
> [@sunstone](#): > > Seems to me that we will ultimately run out of resources and in the process destroy the environment for ourselves and many other species. > > Hope I’m wrong. I was about to post something similar to this. but as **Sunstone** has already said it I’ll just say ‘this’. But I think it’ll be more complicated. Lack of resources will mean reduction in population, but the reduction in population will mean resources are consumed more slowly. I think this introduces uncertainty so it will be difficult to predict exactly what form the extinction of the human race will take, but It will be _related_ to the running out of resources. Edit to add: My answer is based on optimism that we will ‘outgrow’ the tendency to War. If I’m being realistic we’ll probably destroy ourselves with War long before resources run out. As individuals we can be clever, creative, enlightened, good natured, but as a group we are mind numbingly stupid, suicidal, ignorant, deluded. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/12 "2010-11-17T02:35:19Z")
Or it’ll be robot Nazi zombies riding sharks with laser beams attached to their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/13 "2010-11-17T02:48:37Z")
I don’t think it will. We are a pretty resilient species, and as time goes on we gain more tools to maintain our civilization against various stressors. In the period of about 1910-1954 Russian society lost about 70 million people to numerous wars and famines (they had about 150 million in 1910). But despite losing half their population in 40 years their civilization survived. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/14 "2010-11-17T03:02:53Z")
I chose Other, for three possible scenarios: 1. Low fertility goes worldwide as all countries go through the [demographic transition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition), falling below replacement levels as they already are in Europe and developed Asia. Falling population means less specialization of labor, causing economic growth to reverse, humans revert back to a relatively poor, primitive civilization that is much more prone to extinction from chance events. 2. Runaway technology of some sort - nanotech, self-improving AI, or the like. 3. Alien contact not going well. Starfaring aliens may well be benign, but if they’re malign, outclassed humans will go squish with great force, no chance for a valiant counterattack a la pulp SF. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-how-will-the-human-society-end/560829/15 "2010-11-17T03:07:44Z")
Human society will end when we have no further need for one another. With enough automation of agriculture, industry, etc., we will enjoy a post-scarcity existence where each person has access to effectively unlimited free goods and services; each person could have their own private planet if they wish. Interdependence will be a thing of the past, so we will only interact with people with which we wish to interact. Society, in the sense of a network of interdependent people with rules and conventions for interaction, will be obsolete.