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Nuclear war is an often-predicted cause of the extinction of humankind. [1]Human extinction is the hypothetical end of the human species, either by population decline due to extraneous natural causes, such as an asteroid impact or large-scale volcanism, or via anthropogenic destruction (self-extinction), for example by sub-replacement fertility.
Predictions of apocalyptic events that would result in the extinction of humanity, a collapse of civilization, or the destruction of the planet have been made since at least the beginning of the Common Era. [1] Most predictions are related to Abrahamic religions, often standing for or similar to the eschatological events described in their ...
The doomsday argument (DA), or Carter catastrophe, is a probabilistic argument that claims to predict the future population of the human species based on an estimation of the number of humans born to date. The doomsday argument was originally proposed by the astrophysicist Brandon Carter in 1983, [ 1 ] leading to the initial name of the Carter ...
Artist's concept of the Earth 5–7.5 billion years from now, when the Sun has become a red giant. While the future cannot be predicted with certainty, present understanding in various scientific fields allows for the prediction of some far-future events, if only in the broadest outline. [1][2][3][4] These fields include astrophysics, which ...
An uncertain factor is the pervasive influence of technology introduced by humans, such as climate engineering, [2] which could cause significant changes to the planet. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] For example, the current Holocene extinction [ 5 ] is being caused by technology, [ 6 ] and the effects may last for up to five million years. [ 7 ]
Some of the more extreme warnings of civilizational collapse caused by climate change, such as a claim that civilization is highly likely to end by 2050, have attracted strong rebutals from scientists. [5][6] The 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report projects that human population would be in a range between 8.5 billion and 11 billion people by 2050.
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. [ 1 ] Maintained since 1947, the Clock is a metaphor, not a prediction, for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances.
The technological singularity —or simply the singularity[ 1 ] —is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization. [ 2 ][ 3 ] According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I. J. Good 's ...