How will humanity end - and can we avoid it ?

THE VENUE: By the River

The forecast for Sunday is hot and sunny, so we plan to meet outdoors by the river. But things can change so please look out for updates before you leave home. There is no attendee limit.

Etiquette
Our discussions are friendly and open. We are a discussion group, not a for-and-against debating society. But it helps if we try to stay on topic. And we should not talk over others, interrupt them, or try to dominate the conversation.

There is often a waiting list for places, so please cancel your attendance as soon as possible if you subsequently find you can't come.

WhatsApp groups
We have two WhatsApp groups. One is to notify events, including extra events such as meeting for a meal or a drink during the week which we don't normally put on the Meetup site. The other is for open discussion of whatever topics occur to people. If you would like to join either or both groups, please send a note of the phone number you would like to use to Richard Baron on: website.audible238@passmail.net. (This is an alias that can be discarded if it attracts spam, hence the odd words.)

THE TOPIC: How will humanity end - and can we avoid it ?

Thank you to Martine for suggesting this week's topic. It was prompted by an article in the Guardian this week: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse

Two minutes' walk from our riverside meeting place is the CSER - the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, "an interdisciplinary research centre within the University of Cambridge dedicated to the study and mitigation of existential and global catastrophic risks." https://www.cser.ac.uk

Why have historical civilisations declined and fallen ? Could the same happen to us or our descendants ? What is the most likely cause ? And what, if anything, can we do to avoid our demise - or at least put it off a bit ?

Whatever the cause, it is possible that at least some of us would survive to start over again. Would we learn the lessons of history so as not to repeat the mistakes of Humanity v1.0 ? What might that future look like ?

Would be it be a bad thing if humanity eventually disappeared ? What justifications could we make for deserving our continued survival. Or would the planet (and the universe) be better off without us ?

Some of our familiar vocabulary on this topic comes from the Bible and, in particular, the Book of Revelation, e.g. Armageddon, apocalypse. It details a series of visions of escalating disasters, including plagues, wars, and the rise of evil forces; earthquakes, the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of stars. Even a secular reading may see this as a prediction, and acceptance, of the inevitable end of humanity.

Is it inevitable that we should go the way of the dinosaurs or are we somehow a 'special case', either in our rights or our abilities to survive forever, in some form or other ?

Assuming that the world doesn't end this week, we look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning by the river.