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General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: OmnipotentOne on 17/09/2004 01:27:08

Title: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: OmnipotentOne on 17/09/2004 01:27:08
I remember in a past article of Scientific American Sir martin Rees predicted a 50/50 chance of earths destruction in the next 100 years...

This really doesent seem to farfetched considering that when you type in Atomic Bomb into Google, one of the first results is "How to build an atomic bomb." WTF?!  I dont know about you guys but I think SOME things should be censored.

Maybe we should have tied out batheing suit a little bit tighter before diveing head first into the Nuclear Age.

Between global warming, meteor, failing atmosphere and our favorite nuclear holocaust our fate is looking somewhat grim.

SO back to my question, do YOU think the earth, civilation in itself will survive mother natures future onslaught, or be doomed to an inevitable mushroom cloud?

To see a world in a grain of sand.
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: neilep on 17/09/2004 08:55:40
Personally, I think us humans in our infinite wisdom (ha !!) tend to lean towards self destruction....either we'll blow ourselves up, come under chemical weapon/neuro toxin attack,  or there'll be some form of plague,or an earthborn natural disastar or an external one when a big rock wants to play snooker/pool/billiards with the earth... "Oh Happy days are here again la dee dah !!!"...I think Stephen Hawking also made a similar prediction that within ourselves we have no alternative but to destroy ourselves (people pleae correct me if I'm wrong)....oh the joy of it !!...wish I was a cockroach !!

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !' (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.world-of-smilies.de%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2FSchilder2%2Finsanes.gif&hash=4f18432872d0188852a6f4a3170ec758)
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: qpan on 17/09/2004 11:03:30
Well, nuclear bombs probably wouldn't destroy all human life, just most of it and then make life very hard for the survivors.

However, something that has the potential to destroy not just earth, but the whole solar system (and maybe even the rest of the galaxy) is nanotechnology. Nanobots can self replicate. Should a terrorist or mad scientist create a single nanobot which can replicate an unrestricted number of times, then the "grey goo" scenario may occur. That single nanobot would gather atoms from the surroundings to create another nanobot, the two nanobots would create two more nanobots, the four would produce four more, etc. Essentially, these nanobots would be forming an artificial cancerous tumour on the earth, whose cell number would periodically double by taking in atoms from the surroundings and rearranging them. The number of nanobots would increase exponentially and rapidly rearrange all matter around them. After destroying the earth, all it would take is one meteor to collide with the mass of nanobots and eject a single nanobot into space, which would later be sucked in by the pull of another planet and restart the process...

Nanotechnology will certainly be in full force by 100 years times, and while it holds the power to destroy the earth, it also holds the key to immortality in the form of nanobots which repair our cells.

"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
-Edgar Allan Poe
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: Corbeille on 17/09/2004 11:15:42
When these nanobots get big enough, can't we just stamp on them like cockroaches? - problem solved.

you can't crack me I'm a rubber duck!
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: qpan on 17/09/2004 14:26:45
the nanobots don't get bigger - they are always extremely miniature - they'll increase in numbers though. If you stamp on them, they won't be destroyed and some will probably stick to your shoe, in which case you will become converted into nanobots shortly!

"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
-Edgar Allan Poe
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: Corbeille on 17/09/2004 14:41:00
Well how about pouring boiling water on them?  Like with ants. Can we breed some giant nanobot eaters?

you can't crack me I'm a rubber duck!
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: DrN on 17/09/2004 20:41:42
nanobots sound like an analogy to cells - they started off unicellular, then became symbiotic, then eventually they became specialised to perform the different functions required for the whole to live more efficiently (division of labour). This started as pure RNA and DNA, which could replicate indefinately. whats the difference? a different type of life that could eventually take over the world? or maybe they'll be our successors after we've wiped ourselves out with nuclear explosions, global warming and the likes.
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: OmnipotentOne on 17/09/2004 21:01:48
WOW I've never heard of that kind of technology before, the grey goo does sound familar.  How small would the original one be?

That reminds me of some money ploy i always wanted to try, i think it goes like this.  I do your dishes for .o1 cent the first day, .o2 cent the 2nd, .o4 the 3rd .08 etc...after about 2 months theyd be paying me in the millions.

I always have this nightmare of a cure for cancer, that they give to everyone on earth to prevent and kill it.  But something goes wrong and it turns out to be some super virus destroying all of mankind.

So like last year or something a meteor came between the moon and the earth?  Dude that really sucks I cant remember if they told us or hope we wouldnt notice...

To see a world in a grain of sand.
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: neilep on 17/09/2004 21:46:40
Someone better invent some Nanobot Spray !!...akin to fly spray.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !' (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.world-of-smilies.de%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2FSchilder2%2Finsanes.gif&hash=4f18432872d0188852a6f4a3170ec758)
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: qpan on 18/09/2004 01:03:53
Nanobots can be just a several atoms in size. The difference between nanobots and dna is that dna is very fussy about the conditions required for replication. Nanobots could be programmed to replicate in pretty much any scenario.

The only way to stop the nanobots would be to build a different one which would break down the existing nanobots (and not be broken down by the existing nanobots). However, it would need to replicate faster else it would never catch up in numbers! Also, a large amount of damage would have been done by the time the first wave of nanobots were all destroyed.

One interesting thing is, would the nanobots "evolve"? Due to there being so many replicaitons, erros may occur (similar to mutations in cells) and may produce superior nanobots which replicate faster. If they evolved, they would basically become unstoppable - we'd basically be artificially creating the common cold (which we can't cure as it evolves too quickly) but it would be far more deadly!

"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
-Edgar Allan Poe
Title: Re: The Next 50 Years.
Post by: Predator_X on 09/01/2005 13:06:37
they said tat theres a 1 in 10,000 risk tat a asteroid 1km in the next century will stike earth not 50/50%