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: 2) by Webweasel on Wednesday June 14 2017, @11:04AM (1 child)
Don't you mean interstellar rather than intergalactic?
Getting to the nearest star is hard, but the nearest galaxy? On nuclear?
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 14 2017, @12:48PM
You are probably right. It's likely interstellar. Ie we need to be able to manage self sufficiency in free space beyond Mars and outside the Solar system. In those places there are only few hydrogen atoms per m³ so not much to make use of as fuel.