How will Humankind will meet its end? And a poll!

[mckitterick]

I'm in the midst of planning for my spring "Science, Technology, & Society: Examining the Future Through a Science Fiction Lens" course, and was researching a bit for interesting material. Here's some of what I found.

Are you the very model of a singularitarian?

Speaking of transcendental or catastrophic change, this book on Armageddon Science looks interesting. Here's an interesting interview with the author, discussing various end-of-humankind scenarios.

[Poll #1659680]
Later: How do we avoid such scenarios?

In related news, have you seen the Google Ngram Viewer? Interesting tool for seeing word usage in the books that Google has scanned. Note how "natural philosophy" reaches peak usage in the early 1800s, while "fuck" saw its peak usage from the late 1600s to the early 1700s, appearing almost not at all from the early 1800s through the 1960 or so. "Extinction" doesn't see much regular use until the late 1700s, becoming more popular ever since. What can we learn from these trends? Just sayin'.

Singularitarianly yours,
Chris

Comments

[kimberlywade.livejournal.com]

I orginally marked slow extinction then switched to other, because i think the total destruction of civilization as we know it will happen rapidly due to causes mentioned, but a few small bands of humans will surely survive to die out slowly as the earth changes. They may survive long enough to create new civilizations and see them decline. It's all cyclical.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

We've always made it through a couple of extinction events so far, even if it was touch-and-go!