Five Biggest Threats to Humanity

[West of the Rockies]

What do you all think are the five greatest threats our world faces?

I (with no real forethought) would say:

Climate change
Radical Islam
Corporate greed
Lack of education/intellectual curiosity
The creation/acceptance of unstable governments in the pursuit of national goals

[someguy]

Don't forget lack of education, and the growing anti-scientific\anti-intellectual sentiments.

[someguy]

I also think you should add american religious institutions in with radical islam, such as the group who helped pass a law for the death penalty for homosexual people in ghana, and ongoing anti-evolution and anti-sex education things.

[albrecht]

-Biological weapons and viruses (especially if manipulated and weaponized or genetically/racially targeted)


-Nuclear waste storage (or lack thereof) and/or nuclear meltdowns or terrorism

-EMP from a solar flare or terrorism taking out a large portion of the grid

-WWIII

-Asteroid/Comet hit

(I guess I could throw in the Yellowstone caldera going also.)

[someguy]

Wait you said anti-education haha. My bad, fucking codeine.

[MrMajestik]

Radical Islam.
Massive Western government debt.
Worldwide fresh water shortages.
Chinese plans for south china sea area.
The loss of the American middle class.

In that order.

[wr250]

george noory and his medical advice
george noory and his educational advice
george noory and submerging artists
flaming pizza roles in combination with ouija bored portals
george noory.

[Juan]

Humanity

[Quick Karl]

Humanity

Juan,

Humans are, in fact, just as much a part of the natural ecosystem, as is every other living creature on the planet.

We're not poison - although in the last 50-years or so, there seems to be a maniacal effort on the part of a small percentage of humanity, to promote that self-destructive view.

Your friend,

Karl

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

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[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

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[b_dubb]

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Ahh a lovely collection of ol' timey jack off material.  Thank god we have proper pornography today.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Ahh a lovely collection of ol' timey jack off material.  Thank god we have proper pornography today.

I never paid much attention to that.  I just read it for the articles and cartoons.

[West of the Rockies]

I recall the magazines True and Argosy (my father subscribed).  I have never heard of these however.  They sure had a thing for women being mildly menaced by not-typically threatening creatures:  Capuchin monkeys, box turtles, crabs?  Were there other covers involving surly chipmunks, disgruntled newts, and out-of-sorts lemurs?  The horror... The horror....

[b_dubb]

I recall the magazines True and Argosy (my father subscribed).  I have never heard of these however.  They sure had a thing for women being mildly menaced by not-typically threatening creatures:  Capuchin monkeys, box turtles, crabs?  Were there other covers involving surly chipmunks, disgruntled newts, and out-of-sorts lemurs?  The horror... The horror....

A buxom brunette being terrorized by a disembodied mustache that smells faintly of pizza rolls and turmeric

[West of the Rockies]

Good one, Bdubb... No doubt in the background could be heard a shitty lounge lizard warbling "I Can't help falling in love with you...."

[Quick Karl]

You guys are weird....

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

I recall the magazines True and Argosy (my father subscribed).  I have never heard of these however.  They sure had a thing for women being mildly menaced by not-typically threatening creatures:  Capuchin monkeys, box turtles, crabs?  Were there other covers involving surly chipmunks, disgruntled newts, and out-of-sorts lemurs?  The horror... The horror....

I remember True and Argosy from my childhood.  They were similar, but not nearly as sensationalistic.  I liked them because they often featured stories about UFOs and the usual terrestrial paranormal phenomena suspects, all of which I was seriously into.  I wouldn't be surprised if Brad Steiger wrote some articles for them.

[Yorkshire pud]

Radical Islam.
Massive Western government debt.
Worldwide fresh water shortages.
Chinese plans for south china sea area.
The loss of the American middle class.

In that order.

The loss of the American middle class is a world threat to humanity? I see.

[West of the Rockies]

I guess I should revise the point I made about radical Islam:  any religion that produces so much violence is a danger.  It just seems like in 4/5ths of the war zones, radical Islam is a major issue.

[Tarbaby]

I guess I should revise the point I made about radical Islam:  any religion that produces so much violence is a danger.  It just seems like in 4/5ths of the war zones, radical Islam is a major issue.

not just Islam. Any religion. Religion and society demonstrates a social and personal psychological camouflage of delusion. Excepted and projected. Its purpose is to justify our Freudian want/need hierarchy. The dogma always speaks for God but it serves our own tribe,, ensuring our needs are satiated, deprivation is avoided, and all the while the god paradigm is sublimated.

all of this is extremely dangerous for any society including a global one.

[Jackstar]

5) Satan
4) Satan
3) Monsanto
2) Fukushima fallout/spillage
1) Satan

[albrecht]

I recall the magazines True and Argosy (my father subscribed).  I have never heard of these however.  They sure had a thing for women being mildly menaced by not-typically threatening creatures:  Capuchin monkeys, box turtles, crabs?  Were there other covers involving surly chipmunks, disgruntled newts, and out-of-sorts lemurs?  The horror... The horror....

I recall a crazy caller "predicting" small animals turning on people in Canadian parks one year with Ian Punnett hosted the New Years prediction line. It was quite funny his prediction and also how Ian handled the call and dragged the whole story out of him....."it would start with raccoons and squirrels". It was on YouTube at some point because so funny. But I couldn't find it now.

[PB the Deplorable]

The loss of the American middle class is a world threat to humanity? I see.

Yes. The US is the essential nation*.  Of course Obama's attempt to destroy our middle class is a threat to global security.


*Also referred to as the 'Great Satan' by his Jihadist friends

[Yorkshire pud]

Yes. The US is the essential nation*.  Of course Obama's attempt to destroy our middle class is a threat to global security.


*Also referred to as the 'Great Satan' by his Jihadist friends

How many people does it represent?

[SciFiAuthor]

5. EMP from the sun, or the detonation of a nuclear weapon at a certain altitude by a rogue nation or terrorists.

4. Armageddonist terrorists from any religion getting ahold of a virus like smallpox, or one of the hybrids like Ebolapox that the Soviets supposedly developed.

3. Anything that disrupts debit card transactions or cash withdrawals for longer than three days. People don't realize it, but at any given time we are three days from Mad Max. That's the average amount of food people keep on hand, and also the average amount grocery stores stock. Even the most belligerent liberal will wish they had a gun after only three days. We came dangerously close to this within all of our living memory, if Bush hadn't instituted immediate measures to ensure that the banks wouldn't freeze their own accounts during the beginning of the 2008 recession, part of the so-called bank bailout, it would have happened like dominos falling.

2. The flu virus mutates in a bad way like the 1918 Spanish flu did.

1. Artificial Intelligence gone wrong. As Frederic Brown wrote, if you ask the supercomputer "Is there a god?" and it comes back with "There is now", then you've got a problem.

And a bonus: a country, such as China, genetically modifying a slate-wiper virus that targets everyone without a genetic trait such as the epicanthic fold and letting it loose the moment they run out of resources.

[paladin1991]

I recall the magazines True and Argosy (my father subscribed).  I have never heard of these however.  They sure had a thing for women being mildly menaced by not-typically threatening creatures:  Capuchin monkeys, box turtles, crabs?  Were there other covers involving surly chipmunks, disgruntled newts, and out-of-sorts lemurs?  The horror... The horror....

Don't forget the ill-tempered sea bass.

[Jackstar]

5. EMP from the sun,

Okay, Sol, Yahweh, & Satan.

4. Armageddonist terroristsviruses from any religionself-regulating bio-sphere getting ahold of a virusterrorist

I bet you can see where I am going with this one. It is nice to be able to talk at you again! You actually stand under things, I can tell from your flippers.


Case 3--the failure of the debit/banking system--would result in a massive net benefit to humanity, and so has been stricken as unworthy of reply.

2. The flu virus mutates in a bad way like the 1918 Spanish flu did.

The 1918 "mutation" was onesuch, insofar as it caused the massive error in prescribing aspirin to kill millions of people. But was it really an "error"? We may *never* know.

Numfar! Do the dance of LOOKING BACKWARDS IN TIME, THANKS.

1. Artificial Intelligence gone wrong. As Frederic Brown wrote, if you ask the supercomputer "Is there a god?" and it comes back with "There is now", then you've got a problem.

I am a prototype for a much larger system.

And a bonus: a country, such as China, genetically modifying a slate-wiper virus that targets everyone without a genetic trait such as the epicanthic fold and letting it loose the moment they run out of resources.

OKAY, THIS WAS LEGITIMATELY FUNNY. STAND UP AND GIVE THIS MAN A ROUND OF APPLAUSE. SINCERELY. NICE JOB.

[SciFiAuthor]

Okay, Sol, Yahweh, & Satan.

There is only Sol.

I bet you can see where I am going with this one. It is nice to be able to talk at you again! You actually stand under things, I can tell from your flippers.

Yeah, where did you disappear to? Did the paychecks from the radio company dry up or did another quickie trolling job float along?

Case 3--the failure of the debit/banking system--would result in a massive net benefit to humanity, and so has been stricken as unworthy of reply.

Fail the debit/banking system and you'll have 20,000 armed gangbangers per city that are dependent on the ability to go to the convenience store and buy potato chips coming at you to take your can of tomato soup. Three days.

The 1918 "mutation" was onesuch, insofar as it caused the massive error in prescribing aspirin to kill millions of people. But was it really an "error"? We may *never* know.

It was a random mutation in avian flu that jumped to humans.

I am a prototype for a much larger system.

Oh, well, we're safe then. I retract #1.

OKAY, THIS WAS LEGITIMATELY FUNNY. STAND UP AND GIVE THIS MAN A ROUND OF APPLAUSE. SINCERELY. NICE JOB.

Biological warfare of this sort is the next nuke scare. The more we learn about the genome of viruses, the more dangerous and evident this will become.

[albrecht]

Biological warfare of this sort is the next nuke scare. The more we learn about the genome of viruses, the more dangerous and evident this will become.

Yeah, I've been thinking/waiting when this would happen for decades. There were more-than-rumors decades ago that Israel and South Africa were working on genetically targeted bio-weapons. I think some of it actually came out in the so-called "Truth and Reconciliation" stuff they did in South Africa. Also rumors in China and N.Korea. It is a, sadly, obvious next-step and although definitely banned by treaties and beyond the pale morally all it will take is a very cynical or crazy person. Or a country who thinks it is doomed and so wants or does a "Sampson-type Option." And it would likely fail in true purpose and end up killing most everyone. Simply monkeying around with various viruses, no pun intended, could have some dire consequences just by mistake. Frankly, I think nukes are far less scary because:
-only a limited number of countries have them.
-delivery systems are costly to deliver them far away
-we can detect radiation more easily
-we already have some oversight and investigations and operations tracking material, people, etc
-they (although horrible) are limited in their damage (unless we shoot off a bunch) especially for the type the likely crazies or terrorists have. They would kill a lot of people but still we are talking cities or small countries. Not everyone.