# Which is likely to happen first?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-likely-to-happen-first/646075>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 4, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-likely-to-happen-first/646075 "2013-01-04T16:41:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-likely-to-happen-first/646075/1 "2013-01-04T16:41:06Z")

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Whether it is in a Decade, a Century or a Millennium… Which is most likely to happen first?

Contact with another intelligent species or the destruction of Earth and humankind?

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**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-likely-to-happen-first/646075/2 "2013-01-04T17:31:15Z")

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Depends on how you define contact but I’ll go with discovery of life elsewhere happening first.  
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**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-likely-to-happen-first/646075/3 "2013-01-04T17:40:52Z")

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I think that’s three things, Earth will probably be around until our sun expands to a red giant. I think it’s overly optimistic to think humans will last that long.  
Anyway, I think we’ll be contacted by another intelligent species first, (agree we’ll probably find good evidence of life before that), then humans will die out and/or transform into something else, then the earth will be absorbed into the sun. Except for the last, it could be tomorrow, could be several millennium.

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**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-likely-to-happen-first/646075/4 "2013-01-04T18:22:50Z")

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I think the odds of those happening simultaneously are very high.