Extinction!
Will humans will become extinct within a century?
We are an extremely adaptable species, able to survive anywhere from the Kalahari desert to the Arctic, with only stone age technology. We had already colonized most of the world by the end of the neolithic period.
Having said that, the human race is entering the most dangerous 100 years in its history and faces a looming existential battle.
It is very unlikely that humans will go extinct from climate change. Any change faster than we can adapt by relocating people and industry could and probably would collapse the economy, which would be a massive social change.
That leaves things we can do to ourselves.
Artificial intelligence (AI), nuclear war and genetically-engineered viruses are just some of the man-made problems that pose an imminent threat to humanity.
Dr. Stephen Hawking thinks,
“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years. By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.”
The main problem seems to be things we can do through our own stupidity. Luckily we don’t go extinct every time we do something stupid. We wouldn’t still be here if it worked like that.
