The Doomsday Clock, Stephen Hawking, And The Apocalypse

If there’s one thing scientists, conspiracy theorists, and the people protesting Donald Trump can all agree on, it’s that we’re getting closer to the end of the world – if only by small steps.

The “Doomsday Clock” scientists are considering the implications of a Trump presidency, Stephen Hawking insists humanity won’t survive another 1,000 years, and a mathematician figures mankind has a 0.2 percent chance of becoming extinct this year.

It’s a fine time to be alive.

The “Doomsday Clock,” which is supposed to demonstrate how close we are to the end of the world, is currently set at 3 minutes before midnight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0uovNGr4_E

This week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, are meeting to discuss the election of Donald Trump, the effects of climate change, and nuclear weapon modernizations to determine how close we are to doomsday.

“The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.”

Meanwhile, world famous physicist Stephen Hawking went public this week with his prediction that humanity wouldn’t last another 1,000 years on Earth, according to the New York Post.

“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet.”

This isn’t the first time Hawking has urged humanity to spread out into space and become a multi-planet species to avoid an extinction event caused by climate change or nuclear war.

He’s also shown an ambivalence toward artificial intelligence, noting smart robots could wipe out humanity, and space aliens who he warns are likely to arrive as conquerors and not peaceful friends.

Hawking has warned the world that humanity needs to forget about the acquisition of wealth and fight the tendency toward isolationism if we’re going to survive the coming years, according to CBS News.

“We will need to adapt, rethink, refocus and change some of our fundamental assumptions about what we mean by wealth, by possessions, by mine and yours. Just like children, we will have to learn to share.”

Meanwhile, a mathematician by the name of Fergus Simpson working at the University of Barcelona, claims humanity has a 0.2 percent chance of wiping itself out this year. That’s not an insignificant number when discussing the end of life, as we know it.

His science is based on the Doomsday Argument, the idea that statisticians can predict the end of humanity based only on the number of people born so far. It suggests we are halfway through human history meaning the time-of-man is winding down, according to The Sun.

“It is quite worrying that we are so producing so many people, because it implies our time is limited if we keep it up.”

Simpson explained that there have been about 100 billion humans born on Earth so far and we can expect another 100 billion to be born before people become extinct, but with birth rates increasing humanity is accelerating towards doomsday.

Scientists aren’t the only ones concerned about a doomsday apocalypse type event. A Texas developer is busy building a multi-million dollar underground bunker complex complete with blast doors and a curtain wall for wealthy residents, celebrities and pro-athletes to ride out the end of the world.

They’re not the only ones. All over the world, the super rich are investing in underground bunkers and fortified panic rooms fearing an apocalyptic event or at least a fair amount of social disruption.

NASA and FEMA are busy running simulations on what would happen in the event of an asteroid collision with Earth and scientists at the space agency and their European counterparts are trying to rally support for a 2020 asteroid redirect mission, as German scientist Alan Harris told Space.

“Unlike other natural disasters, this is one we know how to predict and potentially prevent with early discovery. As such, it is crucial to our knowledge and understanding of asteroids to determine whether a kinetic impactor is able to deflect the orbit of such a small body, in case Earth is threatened.”

Where will you be when the world ends?

[Featured Image by Bank Artist/Shutterstock]