this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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Asklemmy

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[โ€“] subignition@fedia.io 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

a planetary catastrophe out of our control

You're still describing climate change. Science fiction ideas are fun to think about but our own inability to live harmoniously with nature is going to kill us off before any of those problems become relevant.

[โ€“] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

youre still not thinking astronomically. you need to think bigger. i like to at least pretend out technology advances.

[โ€“] variants@possumpat.io 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I was kind of surprised that comet that's been visible at night was only discovered like a year ago. Crazy to think that would be the warning time of anything coming to hit us

[โ€“] LavenderDay3544@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

There are black holes that travel at the speed of light. If one were to pass through our astronomical neighborhood we would never see it coming and it would end our existence so instantaneously that it would be like our species and planet never existed.

I didn't realize they were mobile, that is terrifying.

[โ€“] variants@possumpat.io 1 points 3 weeks ago

As long as it's instant then it's not that bad I guess

[โ€“] LavenderDay3544@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

And you have your head stuck so far up your ass you think climate change is the only threat to the habitability of the Earth when one solar flare gone wrong or object striking the Earth or black hole travelling at the speed of light passing sufficiently close could erase humanity from existence and we would never see it coming. None of these things are fiction and all of them are completely within the realm of possibility. Modern astronomy has documented examples of all of these things happening. In fact the leading theory right now is that the Earth and moon existing as they do is the result of the collision of two objects typically referred to as Gaia and Theia. Theia broke off pieces of Gaia and those eventually came together to form the moon while the rest became the Earth.

As of right now the only thing preventing our species from going extinct due to any of a very large number of astronomical events is luck. But you have no guarantees that that luck will last forever and humanity needs a backup plan.

[โ€“] subignition@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago

Uh, nope, you're putting words in my mouth. It's not realistic to worry about mitigating that kind of stuff when we can't even prevent ourselves from cooking ourselves, and several of the things you listed don't even have plausible technical solutions right now. Nice try, though.