What's the #1 threat to human civilization?

[Ghul]

Unless in the case of an unavoidable natural disaster (super volcano, asteroid impact etc) their is no more narrower term that can be identified as the downfall of the human race. The end of the human race will be the human race itself. Be that human ignorance, stupidity, pollution, over population etc etc. we will be our own downfall.

yeah but not because we are terrible being, its because nothing else is capable of doing so... instead of maybe something extreme like the sun going supernova, but i think thats something far in the future.

[rakall]

I'd go with humans.

+1
/10chars

[Deleted]

Topic asks threat to human civilization and post itself asks threat to Western civilization. Either way both depend on how far ahead in time you are looking (no idea what the word in English is) and how do you define decline.

Good point! I ended up feeling that, while there are tons of different cultures and heaps of diversity in the world, we're all essentially part of Western civilization today. You probably couldn't find any country on the planet not affected on a pretty major level by Western inventions, media, technology, commercial brands, politics, etc.

[Ghul]

Pretty much the right answer with the very first reply.... Or should we say...human ignorance and the inability to learn from mistakes?

yeah because of the inability to learn from mistakes, we got to be the most powerful living being on the entire planet... a buuhuuhuuu!

[Deleted]

I don't think any threat to our civilization is of enough entity to be considered a serious threat.

We have discovered science. We have discovered the path to learn about the workings of the physical world. Nothing can really stop us now.

[groovycow]

War due to dwindling resources and the overpopulation of the planet. I would honestly be surprised if we lasted the next 100 years. Unless of course we found a suitable planet to live within range of the current technology we are allowed to travel.

[Ghul]

Good point! I ended up feeling that, while there are tons of different cultures and heaps of diversity in the world, we're all essentially part of Western civilization today. You probably couldn't find any country on the planet not affected on a pretty major level by Western inventions, media, technology, commercial brands, politics, etc.

i think you are definitely underestimating the chinese and japanese folks... ofc the western guys invent stuff, but those guys over there actually produce and improve it for mass use. if it werent for chinese production facilities, you'd pay 50 times more for a television than you do now... bet that would have SOME kind of influence on the world :>

[Deleted]

i think you are definitely underestimating the chinese and japanese folks... ofc the western guys invent stuff, but those guys over there actually produce and improve it for mass use. if it werent for chinese production facilities, you'd pay 50 times more for a television than you do now... bet that would have SOME kind of influence on the world :>

Oh don't get me wrong. I hold great respect for Asian influence and progress. No doubt we all influence each other. I suppose the questions begs to know which has had the most impact of the two; i.e. would there be skyscrapers, TVs, sport cars, video games and modern medicine in China if it weren't for classically labelled epochs such as the Scientific Revolution, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the Age of Exploration, etcetera - all of which, to my knowledge, began in the West?

[Dezerte]

Voted for other.

I think what will eventually be the number one threat to us is an pandemic. I base this on the worrying trend of bacteria becoming more and more resistant the more we use antibiotics.

[Ghul]

Oh don't get me wrong. I hold great respect for Asian influence and progress. No doubt we all influence each other. I suppose the questions begs to know which has had the most impact of the two; i.e. would there be skyscrapers, TVs, sport cars, video games and modern medicine in China if it weren't for classically labelled epochs such as the Scientific Revolution, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the Age of Exploration, etcetera - all of which, to my knowledge, began in the West?

hmm good point indeed!

[Mcfeegan]

I said other. The downfall of western civilization will be caused by general scientific illiteracy and the mistaken belief held by some that their ignorance is just as good as someone else's knowledge.

[VitesseEOD]

Aliens of course, didn't you watch Independence Day? Without Will Smith, we're fucked

[Deleted]

i think you are definitely underestimating the chinese and japanese folks... ofc the western guys invent stuff, but those guys over there actually produce and improve it for mass use. if it werent for chinese production facilities, you'd pay 50 times more for a television than you do now... bet that would have SOME kind of influence on the world :>

I'd say they are largely part of the western civilization already. Remember that the western civilization took many lessons from the Chinese. And now the urban areas of those countries have culturally more to do with the west than with the rural areas.

How do we define our civilization? I'd use 3 adjectives: urban, technophile, consumerist. These values can vary, or course, but it's what define us. And you see those values here (in Beijing) just as much as in New York or Berlin.

[Deleted]

Money, eradicate money and solve most problems

[Deleted]

Lots of interesting opinions. I forgot to include some of them in my poll. There is no way to edit a poll once it's been posted, is there?

Aliens of course, didn't you watch Independence Day? Without Will Smith, we're fucked

But they're making a sequel! He's still here, dw.

[Ryuukon]

At this point in history, the only plausible threat to humans, ie mankind, is other humans.

We are built to kill each other. As enlightened as we think we are, we are only just a couple of steps above cavemen.

Look back even just 60 years. Mankind was caring and giving to an extent that those of us in our time will likely never experience. People helped each other then, be it helping an old lady across the street or helping a stranger change a tire. But now, we just look at each other as an obstacle to be overcome. 60 years ago, if someone was run over by a car, people would have rushed to that persons aid. Today, we just take a peek and go about our daily lives.

This is only going to escalate to the point where mankind will eventually destroy itself. In another 60 years, why would anyone take notice of someone being run over in traffic, even a media tycoon that was too distracted by share holdings, compared to an entire county starving to death? Modern day news has made all of us at least partially numb to what is going on in the world. Give it 60 years, and an entire nation disappearing will be just a drop in the bucket.

And I can honestly say that I wouldn't be saddened by it. Humans, us, are so distanced from what happens within our world that we just don't care. The level of indifference that we are teaching our children is nothing compared to what they will be faced with. Google the bus monitor.

I've seen reports that the human race will exist for at least another 1000 years, and by that point we will have developed the technology to to populate the stars.

If we even survive the next 100 years I would honestly be shocked and amazed. And if we do, we won't take even take a moment to consider the people we would be stepping on to succeed.

So for me, the sooner we kill ourselves off, the better. Just so long as we limit the impact on the next predominant species that might rule the Earth.

[Aceshigh]

Humans .

[Deleted]

The economy has been holding down scientific progress since forever and getting it's exponentially worse.

[Gorechuck]

Reeeligion.

[Deleted]

Look back even just 60 years. Mankind was caring and giving to an extent that those of us in our time will likely never experience. People helped each other then, be it helping an old lady across the street or helping a stranger change a tire. But now, we just look at each other as an obstacle to be overcome. 60 years ago, if someone was run over by a car, people would have rushed to that persons aid. Today, we just take a peek and go about our daily lives.

I disagree, i think we are just as kind (maybe more) than we were 60 years ago. But the example you gave it's correct. What happened? The difference is that population density grew so much. Biologically we are only capable of caring for a very limited amount of people, we can only consider a few people as actual human beings. In low density settlements that means that you can consider as human beings most people you see. But in our modern urban setting, as soon as we step out of our family, workplace, college/school, hobby-friends... we have run out of "care", so to speak.