What will be the undoing of the human race?

[undeterred]

Poll question: What will be the undoing of the human race?

[Demeter]

1. the Human Race, Of Course!

Silly rabbit. I seriously doubt the Borg will come to relieve us of the responsibility for our species' demise....

[slackmaster]

2. OTHER

American Idol.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. Are you proposing the sun will be our demise?

I could see that happening.

What wavelength is that image, BTW?

[undeterred]

19. Well, the sun is going to burn out someday

and I doubt we'll have figured out how to keep the place lit without it. I think the image is from a video game.

[sunwyn]

4. My response would be greed

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. Fear and greed n/t

[Lochloosa]

6. Other. A really little bug.

MRSA or something equivalent.


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. It's tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus -- or staph -- because it's resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.

The symptoms of MRSA depend on where you're infected. Most often, it causes mild infections on the skin, causing pimples or boils. But it can also cause more serious skin infections or infect surgical wounds, the bloodstream, the lungs, or the urinary tract.



Understanding MRSA

MRSA is called a "super bug" because infections are resistant to many common antibiotics. Here's what you need to know about drug-resistant staph:

Though most MRSA infections aren't serious, some can be life-threatening. Many public health experts are alarmed by the spread of tough strains of MRSA. Because it's hard to treat, MRSA is sometimes called a "super bug."

[undeterred]

35. ...

[IDemo]

60. This one sounds more "difficile":

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1533274/Hospitals-fail-to-report-spread-of-new-superbug-more-dangerous-than-MRSA.html

The spread of a dangerous new superbug through hospitals is being hugely underestimated by the Government's reporting scheme, NHS staff have admitted.

The shambolic state of infection control on wards is exposed in a survey by the Patients' Association. It found only about a quarter of trusts are gathering data on Clostridium difficile (C. diff), the bacterium that experts say poses more of a risk to public health than MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).

[L. Coyote]

7. It WAS the Population Bomb. It happened a good while ago.

[eShirl]

8. global CLIMATE CHANGE-> famine -> pestilence

[Lorien]

41. Yep, brought to all species on earth by greed, ignorance, and the

overpopulation of the human race (sorry, but that's an ugly truth that most here still refuse to accept).

[Lost in CT]

9. Zombies. or male infertility due to enviromental poisons. but I'm thinking zombies. nt

[chrisa]

56. Goooouuurrgggeeee!!!

The dead are rising from the grave -- they get up and kill. The people they kill get up and kill.

[chrisa]

57. Double Post n/t

[marksmithfield]

67. I'm with you!

Zombies, gotta love 'em

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Too many humans not enough planet.

[cobalt1999]

11. You win.

We end up like any species that breeds out of control. Mass starvation and die off.

[peace frog]

12. We have met the enemy

and he is us.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. gray goo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

[undeterred]

15. New word of the day: ecophagy, the consuming of an ecosystem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecophagy

[dkofos]

14. religion

[dysfunctional press]

16. religion

nt

[Uzybone]

17. Overpopulation, read Brave New World

We are already well on our way

[rrneck]

18. A combination

of climate change, resource depletion, population growth, fascist government, and the career of David Hasselhoff.

[Cerridwen]

20. I voted other.

I think ignorance, both willfull and unintentional, combined with lack of imagination and suppression of imagination.

If we are ignorant of what has happened before out time or during our time, of the lives of others outside our sphere, of the things that impact our daily lives as we pretend we have control over our daily lives (yeah, call me Debbie Downer), we will neglect to act to improve things needing improvement, change things needing change, and ending those things that would destroy us.

If we refuse to use or refuse to cultivate our imagination, we cannot imagine other ways of doing things, other ways of living and we get stuck in the "it's always been thus and so," or "it's just the way it is," kinds of self-defeating and self-perpetuating ways of thinking. If we refuse to see the value of imagination as it contributes to creation, innovation, and growth and suppress it or allow it to be suppressed in the name of "pragmatism" and "practicality," those among us who might have "shown us a 'better' way," may never be heard.

What was it JFK said? Ah, yes, he quoted Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not."

I think it is time we started to dream and imagine again. Why not?

[The2ndWheel]

21. The complexity of physical reality

We're always at least one solution behind. We don't even know what or where the finish line is of the human race that we're running. Yet here we are, running in the race, having to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.

[Johonny]

22. Didn't you hear A-rod took steroids

the end time is near

[undeterred]

27. Michael Phelps smoked pot.

This portends the decline of human civilization.

[TWiley]

23. Other: Religion and Republican Bastards will end the world.

Think about it .... it is TRUE !

[bdamomma]

64. .....................

:thumbsup:

[Bluerthanblue]

24. Self ishness/centeredness -

which incorporates everything else. Greed, misuse of power, trashing the planet, gluttony, wars, etc.

[seabeyond]

37. i was going to say lack of integrity and responsibility. and that is all things

all sides..... all abuses.

[Baikonour]

25. Add religion to the list, and I'll vote.

[Javaman]

26. Our undoing began when we discovered fire. nt

[undeterred]

31. And then there was the invention of the wheel.

Its led to a lot of accidents.

[cobalt1999]

33. To quote Douglas Adams...

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.

[marksmithfield]

68. Douglas Adams

Also solved the evolution problem, we are all descendants of telephone sanitizers and hairdressers. no wonder everything is such a mess.

[alfredo]

28. Being clever not wise.

[cherokeeprogressive]

29. Other: Sentience, binocular vision, and opposing thumbs. n/t

[AngryAmish]

30. Indigo and Crystal Children

[EstimatedProphet]

105. I agree

[byrok]

32. Religion. n/t

[elleng]

34. Its 'BRAIN.'

.

[Occam Bandage]

36. I'unno. Don't think any of the above.

Maybe a gamma ray burst, supervolcano, or something else rather unpredictable. Even still I'd imagine humanity survives; most of what people have said could only kill human society.

"Religion," "stupidity," and other common answers don't really make sense. It's like saying, "what killed the patient?" "Oh, you know, being human."

[undeterred]

Agreed.

Our undoing could be caused by a natural event that is out of our control, or by events which are ultimately caused by human action. We could make the planet uninhabitable or it could become uninhabitable because of natural events.

Human action has to do with human thought, which is inclusive of religion, but only a very small part of it. How we live and conduct human affairs, and how we relate to the physical world are more important than religion. Wars may kill a lot of people, but they won't be our undoing unless they involve nuclear weapons. And everyone knows that the genie is out of the bottle and nothing can get it back in.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

38. Ancient Mayan psychics.

They'll doom us all.

[devilgrrl]

39. Other: Hugo Chavez

:sarcasm:

[krabigirl]

40. Extremist religious groups.

[guitar man]

42. greed

and a lack of compassion.....

[ensho]

43. rich white men

nt

[undeterred]

45. republican elected officials

[lame54]

44. Here's the first sign...

[Zodiak]

49. I refer to her as the whore of Babylon

I really do think St. John the Divine was envisioning Palin when he was in that cave inhaling all of those fumes and writing about four horsemen and a beast.

[lame54]

55. shouldn't that be Babble-On?

[Zodiak]

77. Could be...perhaps St. John was a bed speller

...as well as hopped up on fumes.

[undeterred]

79. What's a bed speller?

Did St. John cast spells to get people to go to bed with him?

[Zodiak]

82. Speller...as in spelling words n/t

[undeterred]

84. So he was a BED speller or a BAD speller?

never mind

[Zodiak]

99. lol...I didn't even see the typo!

whoops

[Holly_Hobby]

46. Bacteria or virus n/t

[anonymous171]

47. Apparently Religion will end us, if this thread is to be believed.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[spoony]

58. Isn't it just too predictable?

And notice how NONE of them explain how, as if such asinine statements are self-evident to all?

[hyphenate]

94. If you've seen the movie version of Dead Zone

It's quite apparent "how." Martin Sheen was a meglomaniac president before he became Jed Bartlet.

Most of us feared that georgie porgie was going to be the live version of Stilson, and there were a few times I thought he was very, very close.

[Uncle Joe]

48. Global warming climate change, if not altered will at the very least

lead to economic depression/world wide poverty, civil unrest which may lead to fascist governments and war, general chaos, expanded pestilence and disease, floods, droughts, starvation, fire, and in some cases possible ice age; I'm thinking of Europe. I don't know if it will kill off the entire human race, but if the bubonic plague by it self killed over a third of Europe, I put global warming climate change death tolls at 60-80% world wide.

On the positive side, I believe if the world can come together on the critical issue of renewable, sustainable, green energy, this could have a unifying effect leading to a much needed era of world wide peace and a new period of enlightenment.

[WilliamPitt]

50. Time.

[undeterred]

52. Not enough or too much?

:shrug:

[WilliamPitt]

53. Does it matter?

It'll be time either way.

[undeterred]

54. You can always raise more money but you can't raise more time.

I learened that at campaign training at Camp Wellstone.

[lightningandsnow]

51. Amy Winehouse.

[MilesColtrane]

59. Wolf-Rayet 104

It may have already gone supernova 3,000 years ago.

[here_is_to_hope]

61. Apparently, Miley Cyrus will be our doom...n/t

[bdamomma]

62. ignorance, arrogance and greed.

[malaise]

70. Ditto n/t

[bdamomma]

75. great minds as they say!!!!

[Quantess]

63. Overpopulation.

[ThomWV]

65. We will drown in our own shit, shit of every kind; pollution will be our downfall.

If there is nothing that eats our exhaust products as fast as we generate then then in time we will drown/smother in them. Its really that simple.

[Jim__]

66. War will get us all before anything else. - n/t

[20score]

69. Over-population and or nuclear war/accident.

[leftofthedial]

71. repukes

[zagging]

72. You forgot Catholic patriarchal hierarchy and Evangelicals

[XemaSab]

73. Other environmental damage

n/t

[underpants]

74. C.H.U.D.

[JVS]

106. SWEET!

[Jack_DeLeon]

76. War followed by asteroid...

limited nuclear war crippling the more advanced nations, creating a new dark age, followed by an asteroid strike when the technology to stop it no longer exists.

[hunter]

78. Evolution and Creation

We'll create something that's a lot smarter than we are which will carry on with our intellectual ambitions as our biological descendents revert to a much smaller population of happy hunter gatherers living in a sustainable environment.

In a million years we'll be like the bonobo's hornier cousin, and much less fertile than we are now because birth control will be built into us, probably by the design of our intellectual overlords.

Or else the world wide fungus that currently controls everything on this planet will get bored with us and toss us onto the great compost heap of extinct species.

[Sabriel]

80. Blister packs that are impossible and dangerous to open

I cut myself pretty badly yesterday. And I even used scissors first.

[spanone]

81. the human race

[PurityOfEssence]

83. Religion

It's going to kill us all in endless frenzy of primitive certainty.

[adamuu]

85. Other: heartless robot uprising

pissed off robots...

[undeterred]

87. Pissed off ipods.

:shrug:

[Warren DeMontague]

86. "The way I see it, there's no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine"

"See, there had to be a time when there was no people, right? So where'd all these people come from? I'll tell you where.. the future. And how did they get here?"

"Fuck if I know"



"Flying Saucers. Which are really... yeah, you got it... Time Machines"

[Subdivisions]

88. Other. Oil depletion...aka:

Peak oil.

[undeterred]

100. We're going to figure that out, I hope.

[DireStrike]

103. That wouldn't kill everyone

There would be massive death, but humanity would go on.

[L0oniX]

89. Liechtenstein will take over the world.

[Every Man A King]

90. Israel will start a nuclear war n/t

[asthmaticeog]

91. Message Boards.

[scarletwoman]

93. Those are symptoms, not causes.

:D

[scarletwoman]

92. Other. Ignorance of the true nature of existence. The Wheel turns, Shiva dances, Brahma inhales...

Some will learn the Truth and move on, the rest will be broken down for parts and recycled.

sw

[Iggo]

95. Little germ or big rock.

Whichever comes first.

[J-Lo Biafra]

96. Rickrolling.

[defendandprotect]

97. Voted for Global Warming, but basically that says . . .

human stupidity ended humanity ---

and we may have also ended the life of this planet--!!!

No one knows how all of this will compound - or how quickly.

And, yes -- I do think that fascist governments do have a greed agenda going

which will impoverish all of us -- with food and water and shelter no longer being a given.



PS: Of course, the collision of the French/British nuclear subs also continues to point

in the direction of human stupid accelerating to an accidental nuclear ending --

or a planned one. There are no limits to human stupidity/error!

[opihimoimoi]

98. RUN A WAY IGNORANCE........most of us Humans are on Level One...MEism. Then there those on L2..

Exploitation.....

Missing is a higher Level...L3....that of Global Altruism....which is where Obama is heading for....Peace on Earth....

If he solves that...there will be things and places named for him

[EstimatedProphet]

101. Other: high fructose corn syrup

[DireStrike]

102. We will come up with something.

My guess is that the powerful will gain more power, until their stupidity proves fatal.

[JVS]

104. Monkeys