Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.
Sovereign
Mass Effect
I don't see mankind going out to other stars because I don't see a "need" ever arising with enough warning to let us escape if it was an option. I see all sorts of social and moral changes occurring that makes our lives on earth sustainable. Mandatory euthanasia, pregnancy permits, even solyent green. Maybe we'll settle Mars someday, though even that is a stretch. There is just too much effort involved to make it worthwhile.
Last edited by SirRobin; 2012-11-20 at 07:23 PM.
Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.
Mankind has always been ignorant, and I believe we'll always be ignorant, even in millions of years.
Anyway, as long as we get off this planet for real I think we'll be pretty much unstoppable until the end of time, but if we stay on this planet I don't think we'll survive for more than 10000 years.
Unpredictable really.
The way I could see the human race becoming extinct was if there was a planetary extinction event and we haven't gotten off of the world yet.
Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.
Well humans right now have underground complexes which can substain a 100+ people for a few years so even if there was a natural disaster it would need to wipe out the whole planet to make the human race extinct.
Humans are very resourceful species and have already survived 2 mass extinction events.
Unless a major cosmic event happens to our planet in the next 100 or so years, I'd say never. (well eventually the universe will die out and who knows what happens then)
Humanity is very adaptable. There has never been a species like us before on this planet so looking back at what has happened to other species is pointless, we're way more advanced than any other lifeform has ever been here.
Once we get off this rock I don't really see anything able to completely exterminate us. Sure, in time we'll evolve into something that's not "homo sapiens" anymore but we'll still be here, albeit slightly different.
Extinct, unsure. Big drop in population I say ~5000 years. Our resources will not last forever, and when they run out this world will be a very ugly place to live in many many aspects.
Never gonna happen. We are becoming more resilient than cockroaches.
My Gaming Setup | WoW Paladin (retired)
"This is not a dress. This is a sacred robe of the ancient psychedelic monks."
Before we've completely destroyed this planet I hope, the sooner the better.
People don't forgive, they forget. - Rust Cohle
I don't think we will evolve, we're almost not affected by natural selection, and non desirable genes stay in the gene pool...
A couple hundreds years I guess (or however long it takes before the WW3 with nuclear weaponry).
Not sure about going completely extinct, but they will drop population significantly and probably roll back to more primitive technology.
And the cycle may repeat, until the Earth will become not habitable.
Rincewind: Ah! We may, in fact, have reached the root of the problem. However it's a silly problem and so I am suddenly going to stop talking to you.
The better character questionnaire (D&D)
Actually, 'we' (as a species) have. Well; arguably. One could say that a super-volcano helped shape our species.
Wasn't there one just before the start of this Ice Age?
Actually, come to think about it: If the polar ice vanishes, humans might die off as well. We've never had a time without polar ice. We're an ice age species prone to overheating...
Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.
10^10^120 years in future: Heat death of universe. *
I don't get how anyone could vote for "Never"
*( "Timeline_of_the_far_future" - wiki)