With all due respect to T. S. Eliot, maybe the world really does end with a bang, not a whimper. Whether of our own creation (nuclear holocaust) or of nature’s (asteroid impact), plenty of cataclysms could doom civilization—perhaps even putting the survival of the species in jeopardy. We assessed the likelihood of several doomsday scenarios, from oft-discussed threats such as climate change to more fanciful ideas such as quantum fluctuations that would destroy our universe. The probabilities listed here are not scientific fact—an impossible goal when estimating the possibility of unprecedented events—but informed conjecture based on researchers’ expert opinions. We also relied on those opinions to approximate how catastrophic each event would be, ranging from 1 (localized chaos) to 10 (good-bye, universe).

KILLER PANDEMIC

This article was originally published with the title Laying Odds on the Apocalypse.

5 Comments

1. 1. TuringTape 01:11 PM 8/24/10

   Subscription canceled.

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2. 2. r2vettes 05:50 PM 8/24/10

   Every day is like rolling the dice. One day in our future we will come up "snake eyes". It is a fact, we are not finite. The Earth and mankind have had several near misses. We have many mechanisms in place that could spell our demise, our beautiful Yellowstone park for instance. It will happen, only the question remains "how'?
   Don Hudson

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3. 3. deta4 09:56 PM 8/24/10

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4. 4. deta4 in reply to r2vettes 10:01 PM 8/24/10

   Do not worry about tomorrow, the world will end for someone tomorrow. Free your mind live for today, plan for tomorrow. Death is only a door we pass through to enter another room.
   

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5. 5. H. geriatris 03:11 PM 8/25/10

   Borgification would seem ineluctable, esp v-a-v interstellar exploration, but here too thanx to the Jones effect...H. unsapiens finitissimi est

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