When do you think the human species will go extinct?

[Deleted]

We've already started the process to habit other planets. If something ever destroys Earth, there will be other humans out there...

[Deleted]

The sooner we die out the better. Unfortunately by the time we can't live at the earth anymore, we probably found a way to populate other planets.

[Zarc]

We will live on, evolve and populate other worlds until such time that the universe ends in a new big bang that re-creates the universe - unless we at that point have the technology that would allow us to survive the implosion of universe itself. Either way, pretty much never. Unless some catastrophic collision of some massive object fully destroys the Earth in the next 50-100 years - or if our solar system is likewise destroyed in the next 1000 years. But if we live a thousand years from now, which is not much time in the big picture, we will surely never go extinct (with "never" meaning not before the end of time/the universe).

[Xilurm]

I don't think humanity will go extinct, and here's why.

By the time most of the things you listed could happen, I believe humanity will have found ways to travel interstellar distances in a relatively short period of time, and we will be sending out fleets of ships to either a) explore or b) colonize other worlds.

So, even if earth gets torn to pieces by something, or all its inhabitants die, some of humanity will remain, and thus re-populate.

We may become an endangered species, but ever extinct, humans are too stubborn for that.

Every species that has reached the point where they live a life based on technology is too stubborn for that. This isn't Mass Effect, Humanity isn't unique.

[Fahrenheit]

If the Universe wants us dead it better do it soon. Once we're well and truly off this rock (all the eggs aren't in one basket) we'll be pretty hard to take out, barring a hyper advanced species showing up and waxing us.

[Deleted]

As soon as I can find a big enough bomb.. Or when we run out of resources so that we try to relocate somewhere on another planet, only to find out that we forgot the internetz. That would certainly end the world.

[Someudontno]

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)

Really? We don't see any possible way to venture into other universes in the present, but who's to say we won't find a way in the future? I don't get how anyone could vote for anything other than "Never."

[Ryme]

A few trillion years maybe, when the last stars start to explode. Otherwise, never.

[Slummish]

Nuclear war - Possible, but entirely preventable. Unlikely event.
Super volcano - Guaranteed occurrence, but will not eliminate all human life.
Gamma ray burst - The odds of winning the lottery every week for a year is greater than the likelihood of effective alignment.
Starvation - Will never eliminate all human life. The key here is to kill enough local competition for resources.
Aliens - There's nothing on Earth aliens with interstellar capabilities couldn't synthesize except human labor. So, if they did invade, we'd still survive... as slaves.
Global warming - A real problem, but also one that self-corrects eventually and would do so before we reach the human cooking point.
Solar flare - Wouldn't reach Earth with enough force to do much more than destroy our technology.
Supernova - We will have burned to death billions of years before our Sun goes supernova due to its expansion in about 4 billion years.
Asteroid - Most likely human-killer. However, theoretical solutions exist. Given enough warning, this scenario is now avoidable.
Rogue black hole - Theoretical impossibility. Singularities do not migrate beyond the constraints of orbital gravity.
Artificial intelligence revolution - This is not a worry. AI is in fact humanity's only real option for evolution and immortality.
Biotech disaster - Modern understandings of travel and quarantine limit this possibility.
Magnetic reversal/spinning off axis - Sea-level is sea-level/impossibility.
Worldwide colony collapse (honeybees) - This would cause some starvation, but not enough to kill all of Earth's human population.
Deadly plague - See biotech disaster.
Mass insanity - See biotech disaster.

The only thing that will kill us all, aside from the eventual death of our Sun if we are not a space-faring species by then, is an asteroid impact. The solutions to this problem have been studied and documented. If we would stop cutting space exploration agency budgets, we'd have nothing to worry about.

[Ryme]

Really? We don't see any possible way to venture into other universes in the present, but who's to say we won't find a way in the future? I don't get how anyone could vote for anything other than "Never."

No tangible/verifiable evidence of other Universes, let alone any hints that they could ever be reached.

[Belize]

honestly with how fucking retarded we are as a whole, im sure we'll be our own demise alot sooner than most people think.

Lol seriously, I would be surprised if we didn't bomb ourselves to near extinction, and then the rest of us that lived wouldn't be able to feed ourselves so we'd all die... With, the way things are starting to shape up, there might not even be survivors left to starve.

[Dhrizzle]

Does anyone else find it strange that the poll goes straight from 1000 to millions of years?

[Puremallace]

Hopefully sooner then later. If this is gods plan as some people state then we need to restart. Cull the herd and start from scratch because this shit is messed up right now.

[poser765]

Lol seriously, I would be surprised if we didn't bomb ourselves to near extinction, and then the rest of us that lived wouldn't be able to feed ourselves so we'd all die... With, the way things are starting to shape up, there might not even be survivors left to starve.

I love these guys. Things are shaping up for exactly ass. Nothing big is looming. There is an old curse..."may you live in interesting times."

Well we DON'T live in interesting times.

---------- Post added 2012-11-20 at 08:31 PM ----------

Hopefully sooner then later. If this is gods plan as some people state then we need to restart. Cull the herd and start from scratch because this shit is messed up right now.

What? What is so messed up exactly?

[Knutto]

My guess? Sometime after I'm dead...

[Fahrenheit]

What? What is so messed up exactly?

Didn't you get the memo? About waxing poetic concerning the folly of modern day mankind? It's the hip thing to do on the internet.

[frogger237]

Either when we kill ourselves or when our decedents become sufficiently advanced/evolved that they decide to stop calling themselves Homo Sapiens.

[Deleted]

I think that the availability of clean, renewable energy resources will be a 'make or break' point for our species when the fossil fuels finally run out. If we have an efficient alternative to oil/coal at that point then I think we'll be okay so long as ethno/cultural wars don't escalate to a global scale again. If not, I could see a very grim war for resources being the World War 3 scenario and we will see the very nasty-side of nationalism/regionalism in a time of dog-eat-dog plundering and hoarding (No, that is not what Iraq was.).

[Dezerte]

I think that is a rather impossible question to answer, so I'll go with "I don't know".

[Donald Hellscream]

i can guarantee it wont be the plague, humanity already curbstomped that shit twice, granted it did kill one third of the european population before we somehow became resistant and stomped the shit out of the plague. I believe we will be our own demise maybe not tommorow or in 10.000 years but one day we will be erased from existence one way or another, maybe the sun goes kaboom or some demented idiot decides to drill a hole into the core of the earth and drop a gazzilion nukes into the hole whatever happens im positively sure we will be the ones to doom our own species.