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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.
As computer experts, you are familiar with backup plans. What should we do to backup human survival ?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:32AM
A virus's behavior isn't going to change even a little just because there is someone living off the planet or otherwise unavailable to be infected. And last I checked, viruses didn't have feelings about being left behind on Earth.
There are several things to note here. Governments aren't necessary to move off world. Rockets or similar transportation infrastructure is. As long as you control the infrastructure, you can get off world. Second, billions of people can be fended off, for example, with very liberal applications of WMD (particularly nukes and biological weapons) or vast numbers of bullets. And the logistics support for mindless seas of people are lousy. It is possible for them to starve to death before they can get in the way (or even learn where you are in order to get in the way).
Further, such things can be anticipated just like the end of the world. Just get off world (or into your bomb shelter, etc) before the cannibalism starts. And currently, we already have people prepping for the end of the world. That hasn't kicked off the end of the world.