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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 14 2017, @02:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the make-backups...-and-test-them dept.

Earth has been hit by objects in the past, with devastating effects. Scientists largely agree that it was an asteroid or comet impact that started the chain of events that wiped out the dinosaurs around 60 million years ago.

[...] impacts from objects in space are just one of several ways that humanity and most of life on Earth could suddenly disappear.

We are already observing that extinctions are happening now at an unprecedented rate. In 2014 it was estimated that the extinction rate is now 1,000 times greater than before humans were on the Earth. The estimated number of extinctions ranges from 200 to 2,000 species per year.

From all of this very worrying data, it would not be a stretch to say that we are currently within a doomsday scenario. Of course, the “day” is longer than 24 hours but may be instead in the order of a century or two.

So what can we do about this potential prospect of impending doom?

[...] But the threats we face are so unpredictable that we need to have a backup plan. We need to plan for the time after our doomsday and think about how a post-apocalyptic Earth may recover and humanity will flourish again.

How to backup life on Earth

As computer experts, you are familiar with backup plans. What should we do to backup human survival ?


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:15AM (6 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:15AM (#525274) Journal

    This species has too much evolutionary baggage

    Compared to what? My view is if we get it right the first time, then we don't have to wait for the hypothetical life form that doesn't have too much evolutionary baggage.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:20AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:20AM (#525305)

    Bonobos. They settle conflicts by having sex. [google.com]

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:34AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:34AM (#525309) Journal

      Bonobos. They settle conflicts by having sex.

      So do humans. It turns out that one can settle a conflict to one's advantage more effectively by making one-sided war instead of love.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday June 14 2017, @01:23PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 14 2017, @01:23PM (#525406)

      Bonobos. They settle conflicts by having sex.

      They're trolling the biologists.

      Humans write science fictional stories about "rishathra" to troll the gray aliens who troll us right back by abducting people and probing them. "Well the book we downloaded claimed you like this kind of interspecies stuff"

      The bonobos having not invented much of anything, can only troll us humans by putting on a live action pr0n show for the lonely biologist observers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @02:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @02:33PM (#525436)

    Compared to nothing else, because I have nothing else to compare them to.

    I am merely hoping that a space-faring civilization is possible given enough attempts at evolving a technological civilization.

    It could be that space-faring civilizations are impossible to evolve because evolution of species capable of developing high technology necessarily involves imbuing them with traits that will cause them not to be able to achieve the societal stability to responsibly use their high technology.

    I hope that I am wrong. If you're suggesting that humanity might be capable of pulling it off, then I hope that you are right. Neither of us will be around to know for sure.

    (Before the charge is leveled that I actually hate humanity, I would like to confirm that I do hate humanity.)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:32PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:32PM (#525621)

    If the Market wanted a star-faring race to evolve, the Market would see to is itself. But it won't because the government keeps stealing all the money from honest men to pay for scroungers to eat.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @11:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @11:05PM (#525709)

      No, it won't happen because "honest men" are honest about their "fuck you, got mine" attitude and your would-be inventors and visionaries are slaving away trying to survive because greedy assholes think basic essentials should be a sword of damocles held over the head of 99% of the population to force them into subservience.