stars are born in nebulae and end their lives in their own collapse explosion. The universe seems magnificent, but one day it will stop expanding and eventually die.
Everything has a beginning and an end. Nothing can last forever, and the same is naturally true for human beings. Although humans are currently the overlords of the earth, the first generation overlord Anomalocaris has long been extinct without a trace.
As the first advanced intelligent life on earth, human beings at least have the consciousness to know that they may become extinct. As long as we take precautions, it is possible to slow down the rate of humankind's demise.
There have been five mass extinctions in the history of the earth. These past experiences have provided people with experience. Based on the current development of human beings, scientists have predicted five events that may lead to mass extinction of humans in the future. They are: Global warming , sun aging, asteroid impact, human nuclear war , artificial intelligence .
Since the new century, human cities have continued to develop, and climate problems have gradually come to the fore. Global warming has become one of the recognized crises. The fundamental cause of global warming is that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere seriously exceeds the standard. .
The mass extinction of life occurred at the end of the Permian due to various reasons. Super volcano was one of the reasons . Volcanic eruptions brought out huge amounts of carbon dioxide, which directly caused the Triassic to become the driest era in the history of the earth. .
If the global warming in the Triassic was due to environmental turbulence, then the global warming that humans are currently facing is caused by themselves. Most of the energy we currently use belongs to chemical energy , which are ancient organisms It was transformed after tens of millions of years of physical and chemical reactions after being buried deep underground.
Human beings have consumed huge amounts of fossil energy in the past two hundred years, which would not have had any impact at all, but the bad thing is these fossil energy sources are rich in carbon elements , which is equivalent to the human beings releasing in a very short time the energy accumulated by the earth for tens of millions of years. Carbon, destroying the earth's normal carbon cycle.
According to the IPCC report, global temperatures have increased by an average of 1.2 degrees since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Although this number is insignificant, it has a profound impact on the earth.
If this trend continues, the earth will experience a sharp rise in temperature soon. At that time, all the glaciers in the north and south will melt, and even become a temperate climate with forests growing, and these melting glaciers will cause sea levels to rise by about 70 meters, then not only the coastal cities will be unsafe, but also the entire continental plate will be submerged by 60%.
In addition to global warming, the sun can also affect human civilization.
Because the sun gives the earth light and heat and nourishes all things on the earth, this means that human survival is extremely dependent on the sun. A slight change in the sun may have a huge impact on humans. , It just so happens that the sun is not a very stable object. A huge amount of nuclear fusion is taking place inside the sun every second. The entire sun is a huge nuclear reactor!
As long as the sun is slightly stormy, the impact on human beings may be devastating. Not to mention that the sun will one day age and enter the nuclear fusion of helium atoms. The nuclear fusion of helium atoms is very unstable. will destroy the sun. The surface of the planet has expanded to the Jupiter orbit. By then the earth will be running inside the sun, and the earth is being burned, not to mention the survival of mankind.
However, the sun still has a lifespan of about 5 billion years, and the real disaster that may come at any time is the impact of the asteroid.
65 million years ago, an asteroid hit the earth, which directly triggered the Cretaceous mass extinction, leading to the extinction of 76% of species, including dinosaurs. The size of this asteroid was only ten kilometers.
But it was the asteroid, which was insignificant compared to the size of the earth, that led to a series of subsequent chain reactions. directly led to the demise of the dinosaurs, the overlord of the earth at that time. , because the impact not only made a big crater at the impact site, but It will also cause the earth's plates to move violently, leading to large-scale volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Hawking warned mankind two things before his death.
The first thing is not to send human information to the universe, which may attract aliens and lead to the extinction of mankind. The second thing is to warn humans to be careful about artificial intelligence. Once they get out of control, they may directly replace humans in the future.
Hawking had a childhood illness, and in the end only his eye muscles were able to move. All daily actions are inseparable from Google 's artificial intelligence system tailored for Hawking. From this point of view, Hawking is a beneficiary of artificial intelligence. Why are they so frightened?
Perhaps it is Hawking who has experienced the amazingness of artificial intelligence that makes him worry about whether they will replace humans in the future. In most people's imagination, artificial intelligence cannot be separated from electricity. If the wire is unplugged, there will be nothing. , but the classic science fiction film " The Matrix " tells us that eliminating artificial intelligence is far from being as simple as imagined.
If the first four events are all about human beings gradually dying out
then nuclear war will immediately eliminate humanity. The little boy who was thrown into Hiroshima during World War II fully demonstrated the power of nuclear weapons . As a mushroom cloud rose, the city under the cloud was immediately razed to the ground.
But in a sense, it is precisely because of the existence of nuclear weapons that mankind has been able to maintain general peace for so many years. Although there are always some small-scale conflicts on the earth, as long as nuclear weapons do not move, the steadfast needle they play The left and right will safeguard world peace, so nuclear weapons actually deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.
