I think not...My most fervent hope is that the human condition will improve, that my friends and loved ones will be happy and well. How would that occur if the world were to end?
To see the world end would mean the death of my children and grandchildren...why would I want to see such a thing?
That is the most "Human" response there is to this thread, and I mean that in a good way, my good Doc. This is probably the most common answer for anyone in their late 30's and above. The older a person gets, the more likely this would be the response to this type of question. With age comes wisdom and responsibility. The desire to see destruction wanes as one grows into our elderly years. As we begin to come to terms with the honest realization that our lives must end, we think more about the creation of new life and the want to know that life will go on after we are gone, and that we will be remembered.
And who's to say your not already seeing it? I don't mean because of the oil spill going in right now...that's just more fuel for the fire we started the minute we started polluting and altering the air, land and sea which were at one time ideal for habitation. We foolishly think we're smart and just plod along making decisions that affect the future of this planet on a daily basis...and just because we don't see the immediate results of our actions we think every things cool and we can just keep doing it. Silly humans!
Indeed we are already seeing it. Most people are too stupid to see the signs of climate change. Whether or not scientists have faked things and said we humans aren't responsible. Even if we're not, we Can Not Deny what is going on around us. I explain more after my replies at the bottom. Read on, my friend, read on.
as long as they dont play any of today's "pop" songs thinking erroniously that it is good music. I'd find it amusing if they played the "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish" song from the beginning of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie while the Earth is being consumed in a blaze of glory.
That song? Really? That song? Come on man, I can think of some way better tunes to end the world to. Maybe some Type-O, or some NiN, or even something classical like Beethoven or Bach. To each their own I suppose. The world is ending, listen to what you will, my friend.
...even reading the book of revelations (the prophesied end of the world) makes me cry, and sends shivers down my spine........ so my answer is no.
Id rather be six feet under....but ive always thought it would make one hell of a movie...provocative and eye opening..(the book of revelations i mean)
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood... Rev 6:12 <---- that's from memory, not Google. I'm not a heavy believer in The Bible, but if there's one thing the "Prophets" knew, it was how to follow patterns and signs. It's happened in the past, and it will happen again in the future. I explain more below.
Unless it happens suddenly and without warning within the next maybe 50 years, the end of the world will not be the end of humanity. I suspect once we start colonizing other planets it will be impossible to wipe us out.
I wouldn't mind watching the Earth destroyed on "TV" (or whatever it's called then) from another planet or star system though. I mean if it was going to happen anyway I'd like to witness it. It would probably be breathtaking in many ways.
I would like to think that too, but.... Even if we manage to get off the Earth, if we don't leave our Solar System before the Sun either goes "Super-Nova" or becomes a "Dwarf", we're all still screwed.
What do you guys mean 'would I like to see the end of the world'. The greatest irony is that its happening in slow motion right now, and nobody is noticing to the point that you think its some other time you have to go to visit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100510/ts_afp/unenvironmentbiodiversityeconomy
The oil runs out in about 20-50 years depending who you ask - I suspect sooner rather than later, at which point fertilizer and gasoline (to run combines, tractors, etc... and distribute the products) dependent agriculture collapses. I suppose at that point, in our brilliance we will turn to burning coal, which will make everything ELSE worse. In the meantime, all the resources we could use to feed the planet have been reduced to monocultures that are brittle with respect to any sort of natural or unnatural shock.
Well, I guess the planet doesn't end, but civilization probably will. The ball of iron will go on spinning merrily through space. Although the oceans will boil off in about a billion years. So its not like life will have time to try again on this planet.
There are many resources running out and becoming scarce, not just oil. I do indeed agree though, when the oil runs out things will only get worse, not better. We'll turn to cheaper sources of fuel that damage the environment even more then what we do now and we'll kill ourselves off even faster.
Most people think that the end of us, Humans, is the "End of the World", but it is not. The Earth will continue on without us for a very long time still and most likely retain the ability to support life, just not "Human" life. Scientists have discovered many things in the last few years that honestly should blow people's minds away but doesn't. Allow me to elaborate.
Did you know that Scientists now know that All Major Life on the Planet has been extinguished Five Times? That's right, Five Times in the last Four Billion Years. If you'd like proof you can fact-check me. Go here: http://www.dimaggio.org/Evolution/5major.htm .
The 5 Major Extinctions
suffered by life on planet Earth (so far)
Here are details of the five worst mass extinctions in Earth’s history and their possible causes, according to paleobiologist Doug Erwin of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Erwin said estimates of extinction rates are from the late John J. Sepkoski at the University of Chicago:
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction: about 65 million years ago, probably caused or aggravated by impact of several-mile-wide asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater now hidden on the Yucatan Peninsula and beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Some argue for other causes, including gradual climate change or flood-like volcanic eruptions of basalt lava from India’s Deccan Traps. The extinction killed 16 percent of marine families, 47 percent of marine genera (the classification above species) and 18 percent of land vertebrate families, including the dinosaurs.
End Triassic extinction: roughly 199 million to 214 million years ago, most likely caused by massive floods of lava erupting from the central Atlantic magmatic province -- an event that triggered the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The volcanism may have led to deadly global warming. Rocks from the eruptions now are found in the eastern United States, eastern Brazil, North Africa and Spain. The death toll: 22 percent of marine families, 52 percent of marine genera. Vertebrate deaths are unclear.
Permian-Triassic extinction: about 251 million years ago. Many scientists suspect a comet or asteroid impact, although direct evidence has not been found. Others believe the cause was flood volcanism from the Siberian Traps and related loss of oxygen in the seas. Still others believe the impact triggered the volcanism and also may have done so during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. The Permian-Triassic catastrophe was Earth’s worst mass extinction, killing 95 percent of all species, 53 percent of marine families, 84 percent of marine genera and an estimated 70 percent of land species such as plants, insects and vertebrate animals.
Late Devonian extinction: about 364 million years ago, cause unknown. It killed 22 percent of marine families and 57 percent of marine genera. Erwin said little is known about land organisms at the time.
Ordovician-Silurian extinction: about 439 million years ago, caused by a drop in sea levels as glaciers formed, then by rising sea levels as glaciers melted. The toll: 25 percent of marine families and 60 percent of marine genera.
There have been Five Major Extinction events in Earth's history. ALL Five of those were powerful enough to end Human Civilization. Some life did survive, mostly microbiotic organisms and other forms of microbial life. everything animal sized and all major forms of plant life were wiped clean. Reboot, start over, end game, done. Five Times.
We've also learned through the study of Plate Tectonics that the very ground we walk and build on today is being recycled by the Earth. Each continental plate has a "Subduction Zone" where it is being pushed under the plate beside it. In places like this on the globe we have fault lines. Now through the invention of GPS positioning we can actually measure this rate at which new land is made and old land is divided and swallowed by subduction. The plates are moving at a speed that has been as low as 1 to as high as 10 cm per year. <---- Can Fact Check that too if you like. Try these two sites for a better explanation of Plate Tectonics. http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/tectonic.htm and http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml . It will take a few more Million years, but all the land we are standing on Right Now will eventually be made into molten lava once again and sent back down into the mantle of the planet. Eventually, there wouldn't be Any Trace that Humans even existed. We can't build anything tough enough or strong enough that it will survive this process. Eventually, some day, maybe even Billions of years later, everything will get pulled below a tectonic plate.
Those were the Facts. Knowing that, and knowing that the Planet Earth is roughly Four Billion Years old, what are the chances that another form of life evolved on this planet Millions upon Millions of Years ago that evolved to be highly intelligent as we are? Is it Impossible? I don't think so. Another higher form of life could have existed on this planet that was just as advanced as we are and there could be No Evidence of it left. It would have all gotten taken down into the mantle of the planet and melted down into magma and the elements we use today. There would be no bones or fossils, no buildings older then the pyramids, and nothing to find no matter how deep you dug. Everything will have been recycled through the last couple of Billion Years.
What I do know for sure is that if we don't get off this rock, as a Species, and out of this Solar system, when the Sun goes out....so do we. Period. Way before that happens though our planet will face Drastic Climate Changes that Humanity may or may not survive. Unless we change the ways we think, work, and live, we'll kill ourselves and our environment way before the Sun ever goes out. Will there be enough time left for another form of higher more intelligent life to evolves and escape the planet before the Sun goes out? Who knows?!?!?! So let's hope we all wise up and open our eyes and see what's going on around us and what the planet is telling us. Things are changing and the changes are speeding up. You don't need to be religious or even have a religious belief to see it, either. The signs are all over the place to the people who are truly observant. Weather patterns, Cosmic Patterns, the cycles of nature that have sustained our way of life for thousands of years. These things happen both slowly, and fast, and you can only tell "it's coming", but never know exactly when. Are we doomed to be lost and forgotten? To be the next higher form of life's "oil" as the Dinosaurs are our Oil today?
You, ladies and gentlemen can make that choice. All of us can. We have to make that choice and take that step though and we can't let crooked politicians and businessmen make those decisions for us and take those steps, because they won't. We must change....or it will be too late for all of us.
Just think about it.