digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

20 ways the world could end

discover.com — Outlines interesting, and potentially possible ways the world could be destroyed..some in the near future

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • homerj14, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25Ill take the partical accelerator mishap
    • Ramtech, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6No one really knows how the earth will be destroyed... only by the Man made disasters and war like ones... so yeah...

      8/20 Natural
      6/20 Human
      3/20 WillFull
      3/20 Greater Force...

      Seems we ourselves make up 30% of the ways the world will end... i not too sure if thats good or bad?
    • Suits, on 10/12/2007, -1/+66Being attacked by zombies would be best.
    • DeaconBlues2112, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Anyone have a guess how long the world-destroying chain reaction caused by a particle accelerator mishap would take? Are we talking seconds, hours, days?
    • DiggLord, on 10/12/2007, -15/+5"Was I before Chuang Tzu who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being Chuang Tzu? Or am I just a crazy Chinaman doped out on opium dreaming about being a butterfly who is actually Chuang Tzy dreaming about smoking dope and on and on and on, etc, etc..."
    • revenge7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12@Deacon

      Probably much less than a second. You wouldn't even know it happened.
    • ostracize, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If there were a particle accelerator mishap, wouldn't we be killed by flying debris or by our bodies flying headfirst into something more solid? *If* the world were destroyed during my lifetime, I only hope I die in a manner which carries no pain.
    • Eyeooga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@DeaconBlues2112 - It took decades for the kibble to take over in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (bladerunner)
    • bram, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Here is how it happens - http://www.endofworld.net/
    • darkamster07, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Benny Peiser, an anthropologist-cum-pessimist". wait, WTF!?
    • HunterTV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Being attacked by zombies would be best."

      I have a zombie plan, so that's fine with me.
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Zombies?

      The Zombie Survival Guide - http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/humor/7838/
    • mranissimov, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://lifeboat.com is a good site to visit about this kinda stuff.
  • Buddhist, on 10/12/2007, -6/+46Manbearpig?
  • polyman586, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Not as good as http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm.
  • eksmith, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Interesting, although I think they were running out of Ideas towards the end their.... waking up and discovering it was all a dream. If billions of people have been dreaming for all these years, well... yeah.
    • profOblivion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11The idea is that we are all simply parts of _one_ "person's" - or being's - dream. This being can be part of another universe or simply outside it. It's a valid philosophical argument, but like most supernatural notions, impossible to prove.
    • revenge7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Or, we are all part of a computer simulation.
    • Charron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25Or we're all the fantasy of some autistic kid looking at a snowglobe.
    • Revan01, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11No, then it would be snowing =[
    • trogdor282, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Maybe he forgot to shake us?
    • humanseemer, on 10/15/2007, -1/+4Years? What's a year? What's an hour, minute, second?

      I've gone to bed at 10pm, had a dream that lasted days, and then woke up at 10:10.
  • BryanJK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow... thinking of this stuff will usually scare some poeple... otherwise, pretty interesting... *dugg
  • greymaxcat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23... to make way for a hyperspace bypass...
  • MacLiberal, on 10/12/2007, -21/+1Buried. The world is not going to end, evolution, science and technology will press us ever higher.
    • BryanJK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4...to an extent yes. But we never will be "completely safe"...
    • coldphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10You clearly don't understand any of the three terms you mentioned.
    • Twango, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3May it end for those who wish it .

      For the rest of us: "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."
    • davenport651, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I dunno, I have a computer program that supposed to simulate random evolution followed by natural selection (Vendian, for those who want to Google it). Every time I've let the program run it ends the same way... Mass Extinction.
    • mikeazorin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm sure if I focus hard enough, I'll be able to evolve past any of those terrible scenarios affecting me. Right guys? Guys?
  • xyzunit, on 10/12/2007, -23/+8God wouldn't let any of this happen.

    C'mon people, don't you read the Bible? I know you must, because I always see geeky people in the Fiction section of Barnes & Noble.
    • Ramtech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8-C'mon people, don't you read the Bible? I know you must, because I always see geeky people in the Fiction section of Barnes & Noble

      idk if thats sarcasm or stupidity...
  • killthemoles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5How about Ragnarök? That way nobody wins...actually by the time we figure out which one really is the winner, chances are we'll all be pretty dead by then.
  • xosseh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999 :)
    • cadillaccactus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2me too. i think thats when this article was written, haha
  • 8177, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16People have been saying the world is going to end every ***** week since the begigning of man.
    Live happy and stop worrying about the end.
    • revenge7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11December 21, 2012.

      Sorry, but if I didn't say it, someone else would.
    • Revan01, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yeah, the moslem end of the world failed, why not the mayans?
  • Rocka89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well look to diggnation about the robot attack, seems to me they just talked about that...
  • iamdan1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Rogue Black holes aren't the only way Black holes can kill us, what about a lab created black hole gone wrong.
    • Toast1185, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if we are at the point where we are able to collect and control enough mass, anywhere near Earth, to collapse into a singularity, I think we'd have a backup plan.
    • sonycam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Sounds like a great TV programme to me:

      "When good black holes go BAD"
    • MASTERPL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If it does make TV, It will most likely be on FOX, right after "When Good Starved Pet Alligators Go BAD II"
    • Eyeooga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@iamdan1:
      that was mentioned in #12
    • MrMongoose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Toast

      It's not about the mass per se, but the energy involved in moving mass sufficiently close together to create a singularity... and the LHC is 10 times more powerful than the accelerator mentioned in the article. The only thing that keeps me from freaking out about the LHC is assurances from Stephen Hawking and others that the small amounts of mass used in supercolliders would create a singularity so small that it would burn itself out before it could absorb anything. Of course, that still doesn't rule out strangelets... at this point in history, particle physics has to be one of the biggest wastes of money ever. BIllions of dollars just to prove the existence of the Higgs boson? How does that cure cancer again?
  • kevinchai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23We're definitely going to blow ourselves up.
    http://www.endofworld.net/
  • halosniper7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10 Mass insanity, too late.
  • suman78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think the the 20th one was the best
    • benijuana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5yah, that chuang tzu anecdote was a trip
  • 4answer2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Or maybe this will be the start:

    In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in "mass killing" late in 2007.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2007/01/02/national/a152942S85.DTL
  • Wizer04, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah the 20th one was intresting
  • orientis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Damn! Stop talking about it and DO IT
  • Vinthian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3they are mere theories and how the world "could" end. some are more plausible than others, but they can all happen. i read through about 7 of them before i got bored, but some of the theory, i've never heard of before. nice list though.
  • daecrist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11"According to my source, Dr. Venkman, the end of the world will be on February 14th, in the year two thousand and sixteen."

    Valentine's Day. Bummer.
    • mindsnare, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7what the hell diggers? you're digging down a ghostbusters quote?

      FOR SHAME!
  • ginty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They lose cred for typo on the first line of the article.
  • Xinareiaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That is a great read, very interesting. I hadn't thought about the mass energy release in our cosmic neighborhood.
  • richhuang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For anyone who is interested, a more comprehensive list of 'end of the world' scenarios is available at Exit Mundi http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm

    Enjoy.
  • psplayer6, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm
  • josenim, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I guess you guy's should just hope I don't wake up any time soon.
  • psplayer6, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Posted a second after the guy before. Dig down
  • bioskope, on 10/12/2007, -6/+521 - Women
    • nato64, on 10/12/2007, -1/+322 - Men doing stupid things to impress Women
  • osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Interesting read.
  • BOSyooper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"The odds of being one of the people to witness doomsday are highest when there is the largest number of witnesses around— so now is not such an improbable time."

    If the cause of the doomsday is time dependent(such as it could happen anytime without regard to population), does this realy mean anything? No.
  • BOSyooper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"The odds of being one of the people to witness doomsday are highest when there is the largest number of witnesses around— so now is not such an improbable time."

    If the cause of the doomsday is time dependent(such as it could happen anytime without regard to population), does this really mean anything? No.
    • barryh777, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It took you a whole hour to find that missing L?
  • olddirtycr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Alright if the world was' going to end i'd want it to be by zombies. Dead rising anyone.
  • znicket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2wow... talk about new year´s depression.
  • Eyeooga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2who the heck is William S. Burrows?
  • anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I like how it goes from 15 relatively scientific methods of Earth's destruction to 5 that aren't as much. It's like the editor sat down and was like "...***** it"
  • kestrel9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Some people worry about a quick death, but a slow death is also possible. Suppose that pollution or viruses caused our average IQ to drop one half point a year. In a democracy, we might eventually elect a stupid president. Oh wait, that's already happened.

    Advances in longevity also present a risk to democracy. If adults with young children are a small minority, then they may get shafted by democracy and the countries future goes down the drain. Some countries have both a low birth rate and high immigration which together is self genocide. Most people don't seem to care.
    • ramallama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As long as it was a wet dream, I'm good to go.
  • demodawid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think we will be the cause. All those human-triggered disasters are far more likely to happen sooner than an asteroid impact, a black hole passing by, or a solar flare hitting us. Unless somebody actually wakes up and realizes we were all just a dream...
  • progressive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1reminds me of this blog post... http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=120
  • pikebishop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I'd add the 21st way, which is to me by far the most important:

    - another term for Bush (who knows, maybe he's gonna change the constitution), or another president like Bush in the years to come.

    That could really accelerate the end -- or even create the end --, for sure my friends.
  • GlobalStupidity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I like the dream one.
  • neosplasher, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2But any of those reasons mentioned are like a 0.00000000000000000001% chance even less, black holes would be the most far fetched but I believe global warming will only just keep rising temperatures I don't think it would start an ice age and all of that ***** because it does not make sence. The simple way to say it is the world is going to rise about 3 degrees Celsius and melt part of the ice caps and then a few hundred years later we are most likely going to be fried from the O-zone layer breaking. The problem is everyone takes these possibilities like as if it'll be a 50% chance of death form such and such next week.

    When the most likely one spread of disease or robot attackings maybe 0.00001% Chance in about 30-70 years.
    Why does everyone think that Evolution and aliens are real because it is not a proven fact.
    Fact 1 (aliens): No radar has ever caught a U.F.O flying into the earths atmosphere and why is it most alien stories are in America and the UK why not Mongolia or Madagascar.
    Area 51: Has anyone thought that maybe area 51 is to hold technology for the next 20 years so Russia and japan and other countries don't steal their information.
    Fact 2 (Evolution): Evolution is not a proven fact there is only about 0.001% chance and so is the big bang and the sun and the planets they are like 1 to 100 trillion chance of that ever happened and happening again.

    Also that US letter thing how could they put that on the Internet in a couple of hours if the president was only suppose to receive it today. It's funny people forget these 3 words that give common sence a good name (People can lie.)
    • Flon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Id love to see those equations u made to get those percentages.
    • ewc80, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I love how you lump aliens and evolution into the same group. Because they of course go hand in hand. Kinda like Jesus and Santa Claus.
    • pozei, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You do have a point there is no actual evidence of aliens, evolution or jesus. But then again there are always little clues to all those 3 and somethings are a question of faith a question of logic and I believe all 3 of those topics are a question of faith and logic
  • daxsymbiont, on 10/12/2007, -1/+121. thinking a lot the world will end.
  • Loyaleagle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This article is ancient....i have the original paper copy from the 90s or whenever it was published (yes, i'm too lazy to read the page where it says it's date).
  • fallenone05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They forgot to include: the world ending while I have sex with a stripper..
    • glooper23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What's that one movie where the world's ending, so a guy tries to fulfill as many sexual fetish fantasies as possible?
  • derek20cali, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2DISCOVER Vol. 21 No. 10 | October 2000
  • d3lta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1lmao @ the nanotechnology threat... there's nothing more scary than creating miniature sex-crazed robots that go on a killing spree...
  • ghjkl, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0TOO MUCH READING!
    I would love to have watched video dramatizations instead.
  • hossi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+01/5/7 is extremely unlikely, 2/3/4/6/12/ is nonsense, 18/19/20 can't be outruled but I am not particularly concerned that Jesus comes back tomorrow and tells me I've been a bad girl (even though I read 25% of Americans believe Jesus will come back in 2007, so who knows), 16 is at least some thousand years in the future, 9/10/13/14/15 and esp 11 I find somewhat realistic and reason for concern. 17 has already happened.
    • knyght23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"...I am not particularly concerned that Jesus comes back tomorrow and tells me I've been a bad girl..."

      I got a little warm tingle from reading that.
  • rasty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+321) Duke Nukem Forever gets released
  • riplikethat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heh, no 21?

    Nevermind people, I am pulling the plug, earth ends.. NOW! *everyone on Digg freezes*
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 61 of 61 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.