Will there come a time when there is no such thing as the human race anymore?
Will this happen because we have changed into something else, or will we be wiped out?
What will/might happen to the Earth and the human race in the future and within what timescale.
What do you think is the most likely scenario?
Sorry if it seems fussy, but may I as that we narrow down to ‘non religious’ answers only for this question?
that’s ask, not as, d’oh.
The most likely scenario I see is that this question will get a lot more attention over in IMHO. 
Aside from that, I haven’t a clue.
Oops, you’re probably right, Mods? - would you like to move it?
If Mankind can do it, we will do it.
So…[ol]
[li]We destroy ourselves.[/li]
[li]We genetically engineer ourselves beyond any possible recognition.[/li]
[li]A comet or other catastrophe wipes us out.[/li]
[/ol]
My money is on #2 or #3. 
I’m going with some sort of disease-causing microbe that we can’t cure in time. Either from space or as a byproduct of some molecular biology experiment.
Or the sun expanding and swallowing up the Earth. If mankind survives that long that will definitly be all she wrote.
Even if we are able to keep from destroying ourselves, protect ourselves from every possible disease, and become independent of the Earth, we are still doomed. Matter has a finite lifetime. Trillions of trillions of trillions of years in the future there will be no more matter to make people out of. Even if we can address all internal and external problems, the human race (like everything else in the universe) remains the second law’s bitch.
Dooku, the chances of a microbe from space being able to infect us at all are laughably remote. Parasites are highly evolved over millions of years to be adapted to their host. Something from space, having never encountered us before, would not have the ability to invade our cells, work with our proteins, hell their genetic code likely wouldn’t even be the same.
Biggirl, the sun won’t swallow the earth for about five billion years. By that time we’ll hopefully be able to be out of the way for the event.
Dr. Lao, right on! That second law of thermodynamics’ll bite ya on the ass every time.
-b
Unless you subscribe to the Panspermia view, in which case life ‘out there’ would have at least something in common with ourselves.
Stephen Baxters “The Time Ships” had a neat twist on this one. If you ever have a few hours spare, it’s definitely worth a read.
Some scientists believe that life came to exist somewhere else in the universe and that it came to the Earth on a Comet.
Current theories about the universe see it not as a closed system but one which regularly has a ‘Big Bang’… heres a description I found and shortened…
‘A change in the vacuum of space can cause a drop in the speed of light, but this in turn reduces the amount of energy the vacuum can hold, forcing energy out of it and into ordinary matter and radiation’
This essentially screws the second law, sorry all you dedicated fans out there.
At the rate which we are developing weapons it’s my opinion that by the time a comet is travelling towards Earth, we’ll definitely be able to destroy it. The US Government is currently planning to put weapons in space to knock out ICBM’s, these Orbital weapons will soon be powerful enough to destroy a comet or asteriod headed to Earth.
In my opinion if the human race doesn’t destroy itself in the near future it will be around for quite along time. After that we will be crushed by advanced alien civilizations.
PerfectDark
This is the perfect opporunity to bring up a question I emailed the SD that is unanswered so far.
If you check out some Save the Rainforest websites, you’ll be sure to come across a theory known as “The Omega Point”. As far as I could gather, sometime around 2015, the destruction of the rainforests will have progressed so far, and for some reason or another, humans along with most other species will die out. I seem to remember it having something to do with oxygen production, but that seems unlikely, because I thought that most of Earth’s oxygen came from plankton in the ocean. Anyway, here’s a reference: http://www.rainforests.net/home.htm
It’s an interesting idea, even if it’s fake. Anyone else heard of this?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by PerfectDark *
**
It’s a common misconception that nuclear missiles could just as easily be launched against an incoming asteroid, but unfortunately it isn’t that simple; ICBMs aren’t designed to be even able to attain orbit, much less escape the earth’s gravity well, the best they would be able to achieve would be to shatter the incoming rock at a point when it is too late to avoid collision.
Even nuclear missiles designed to be launched offensively from orbit will not work; all they are meant to do is fall to earth, which is relatively easy.
Space-based energy weapons might be feasible; if they could be made powerful enough, we could use a laser or something to vapourise part of one side of an asteroid in the hope that the escaping gases would provide enough reaction to nudge the rock off course, but that would take time, which we might not have.
The best hope would be some sort of orbital arsenal that was designed to be launched against earthbound asteroids will really help; - it takes less fuel to launch a relatively small bomb to escape from orbit than it would from the ground and even then, the ideal scenario would probably be deflection (by detonating the explosive slightly to one side of the incoming object) rather than destruction.
-you don’t mean that, do you?
I’m convinced that the human race will manage to kill itself off by way of a war of some sort. Situations have a way of spinning out of control and I believe that’s just what is going to happen.
I predict that the last man on Earth spends his dying minutes looking for his wife and children.
This is NOT the current mainstream theory. The 2nd law of thermo is NOT being violated. I don’t know where you found this. Can you provide the reference?
You are WAY oversimplifying this. An ICBM is a mote of dust compared to a 10 km asteroid/comet. Although it may be possible to destroy (or better yet, deflect) a comet/asteroid…we are not close to being able to do this now. We have the technology basics, but not the will, experience, knowledge, or politics.
(1) Yes. It is inevitable. The only question is “when?”
(2) Either is possible. Most mammalian species only last a few million years. “Humans” are just getting into that range. (H. sapiens are only a couple hundred thousand years old.) Evolution will always take place, so even if we survive all natural disasters and competition with other species, we will still change into something else eventually.
(3) ?
(4) Either we colonize other worlds and take separate evolutionary paths or we evolve here on Earth or we are wiped out by some disaster such as war, famine, pestilence, or a comet/asteroid strike.
In 5 billion years when this happens, H. sapiens will have evolved into something else.
Ditto for Dr. Lao’s heat death of the universe angle.
Although situations can spin out of control, destroying our entire species through war would only happen if we let it.
This is another reason for colonizations of other worlds. If one planet’s population freaks out (or falls to a natural disaster), the others are unaffected.
Dr Joao Magueijo
Prof Richard Ellis
We humans will , through science, master the regeneration process, allowing us to live forever, till we are challenged by GOD or SATAN, Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Go put your stock into Celera - we ain’t got all century!!