FOR decades Hollywood has been making films about the end of the world and how, sometimes, plucky humans manage to avert it.
Now some of the world’s finest minds have come together to draw up some real-life doomsday scenarios – and work out how mankind could avoid being wiped out.
From killer computers to crippling cyber-attacks by terrorists using the internet to the release of engineered diseases, the members of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk warn that the future could be far from rosy.
But once the threats have been identified the group – led by Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and including Stephen Hawking – intends to devise ways of “ensuring our own species has a long-term future”.
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How the world could end, according to the world’s biggest brains:
Intelligent technology: A network of computers could develop a mind of its own. Machines could direct resources towards their own goals at the expense of human needs such as food and threaten mankind.
Cyber attacks: Power grids, air traffic control, banking and communications rely on interconnected computer systems. If these networks collapse due to action by enemy nations or terrorists, the paralysis could result in society breaking down.
Engineered infection: A man-made super virus or bacteria with no antidote escapes the lab or is released by terrorists. Millions die.
Food supply sabotage: Efficient distribution networks mean many Western nations have only 48 hours worth of food stockpiled. Any disruption would result in panic buying and riots.
Extreme weather: As the Earth continues to warm a tipping point is reached and the process snowballs, resulting in irreversible and worsening natural disasters.
Fast-spreading pandemic: International travel means a new killer virus, mutated from animals, could travel the globe in days, wiping out millions before a vaccine can be developed.
War: Growing populations put a strain on water and food resources. Nations will go to war to protect or capture these precious supplies.
Nuclear apocalypse: Nations with atom bombs launch targeted strikes leading to all-out warfare and global loss of life. Also fears nuclear warheads could fall into terrorist hands.
Asteroid impact: A giant asteroid is believed to have killed off the dinosaurs. Some fear a similar impact could do the same for mankind.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/geniuses-predict-how-the-world-will-end-and-how-to-avoid-it/story-fn5fsgyc-1226718860033#ixzz2eoGkcQXH
