What’s our future?

After watching that Hubble YTMD, me and Dad got to talking about other life and then our own. Anyone care to predict the future of the human race? Are we gonna off ourselves fairly soon? In the distant future? Are we gonna cultivate another planet/moon? Are we actually gonna find a way to survive and live here for ages to come? Are we gonna get wiped out naturally, like the dinos?

What do you think? I kinda think we're gonna some how manage to off ourselves...

Edited by DeTrevni - 28 December 2006 at 10:03pm

Plastics.

Just like Futurama.

Colonization is a must, with the world's population growing at the rate it
is (even with population controls in place in countries like china) we will
be out of arable land in the not too distant future. Arable land is the
biggest necessity when it comes to sustaining life in densely populated
areas. The continued migration of the gobi and sahara deserts greatly
reduces the ammount of land available for cultivation in the adjacent
areas and the rising sea levels combined with the continued loss of inland
water sources (check out the caspian and aral seas) are causing loss of
costal living areas and causing a "dust-bowl" effect in the areas of central
and west Asia.

Colonization and terraforming of other worlds will be the only way that
the human race will be able to survive the next 1,000 years. Great
advances must also be made in either cryogenic hibernation or near-
light-speed travel. If FTL or singluarity drives can be made a reality, then
there is no end to the advances and domain of the human race.

A good book to read that brings up some interesting questions about
space travel and colonization is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I
suggest reading the whole series as it deals with meeting other intelligent
life-forms, how to handle colonization, and communications between
colonies across the void of space.

Enders Game is awesome.

Anyway, I think history will just continue as normal on earth...

terminators or matrix

My guess is the human race will cease to exist within a few million years.  Our sun will, by that time, have converted most of its hydrogen to helium and will be come a red giant, which would most likely envelop earth or come close enough to make living here impossible.  Mars would also likely be too close to survive on.  Although astronomers estimate there are a handful of other planets out there capable of sustaining us, we would have no way of reaching them (unless the theory of relativity is proven wrong).  Of course there is always the chance mankind as a whole would take to space and move around the universe searching for a hospitable planet.  By then, however, the planets would most likely be so far apart that such a journey would become completely impossible and mankind would have to sustain themselves entirely in space. 

Then you have to consider how much longer would the universe be alive?  The stars would burn out sooner or later and mankind would have no chance whatsoever.  Then there is always the theory that the combined gravity of the universe will eventually overcome the speed of the stars moving apart and we will return to pre-big bang.

Thats all long term however.

In the short term, I believe we will have no choice but to move out to Mars.  Once Global Warming peaks on Earth we will collapse into an ice age and stand much less of a chance of surviving.  I could easily see us moving from planet to planet, something like a sumer home.  Unless of course Mars's warming cycle is identical to Earth's in which case we're hosed.

I don't think overcrowding or war will wipe out mankind.  History shows us that these factors never destroyed man.  I also doubt our future will be a bright and rosy utopia, another thing we are shown by history. My guess would be ice age, global warming or something else out of our control.

After the great war of 2073, Canada will be the only survivor.

i think we are going to all kill ourselves sooner then we might think if everyone keeps going on like this, between threats of nuclear bombs, and global warming which is more present now then it has ever been. things need to change soon and fast, our parents ruined the world(baby boomers) and now its up to us to fix it(us young folk)

Dune.