Stephen Hawking: "Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution", page 1

reply to post by allsop

You're both right really.

Yes, a few well placed bombs could do the job.. but who in their right mind would do such a thing. I think we can count that scenario out but you never know

Take a look at our oceans and the plastic mess that is currently floating in it poisoning the sea and the food chain. Airborne pollution from our vehicles and factories. Damage to the environment from nuclear power stations, chemical plants and depleted uranium ammunitions.

On the whole, a lot of this is localised. which is both fortunate and unfortunate. Let's imagine the entire UK being starved and/or polluted to death due to this current societies way of life.. No food available from the oceans as we have either fished it all out or it has al died from pollution. The land wont grow crops as we have either built over it all and/or polluted it through the use of pesticides and other such things.

This would only effect the UK. It is an island.

Now lets look at a small village somewhere in deepest China/Mongolia.
They have no ocean to worry about. They have thousands of miles (exaggeration for purpose of discussion) of land with which to roam, forage and farm before they come into contact with any other village or person. Fresh water rivers to fish, snow capped mountains providing further water and resources.

Humanity would and does survive.

I believe I read once that we are all descended from a group of Humans no bigger than 5000 to 7000 people. This group is supposedly the remains of some major disaster that wiped out the rest of the population.

It's the old "does the world outside my room exist if I close the door" problem. Inside your room your entire idea and way of life could be dying and it would seem to be the end for all, but open the door and you get to see things from a different view.

You and I may not survive some impending doom, but others will.
Self survival is an instinct. Mix that with the idea of nationalism and the 'world ends' when your society comes crashing down.

I wonder how the people of Europe felt when the Roman empire crashed?
Rome would have been devestated emotionally, yet other countries would have thrown parties in their streets to see the end of such control.
For those inside Rome, they would have no idea as to the effect of this fall on other regions. They only had what they could perceive at the time.

Pompeii is another example. One minute the world is fine and dandy.. the next it would seem as though the world was about to end.. and for many it did.. but again, it was localised.

Today we have the internet reaching almost every part of the world, yet there are those who may still have no idea it exists (Tibetan monks in some remote monastery half way up a mountain perhaps). We are able to reach into the lives and homes of millions of people, yet some small groups cannot see further than the mountain range that blocks their view.

The internet might bring news of your country starting to sink into the oceans but the Tibetan monk will have no idea and carry on his life as normal.