What if we KNEW that the world was ending in 100 years? (1 Viewer)

[Mark Dill]

I was reading the global warming thread and my wind wandered onto this interesting tangent. What would happen to the world if we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that in 100 years all life on Earth would be destroyed? For instance, the sun is going to explode or something - so moving society to the moon or a space station is not an option.

Imagine the ramifications! What would governments do? What would corporations do? What would wealthy individuals do? Perhaps having children would be outlawed worldwide. Forced vascectomies for all!

Maybe in the short term, things would actually get better? After all, there's no need to stockpile wealth since there will be no one to pass it on to. So it seems a lot more wealth would be spread to the third world nations and the have-nots of society. But at what point would the social order collapse? How would you live your life differently? How long until the economy collapses and people stop working? People still need to eat, so I imagine they still need to work, except for the wealthy who have enough to last until they die.

So many interesting possibilities, I'd love to hear your speculations. Also, is there a movie/book with this premise? Seems like it could be a good scifi story.

 

[Ted Lee]

yeah, could you imagine?

i'd spend as much time as i could with my family and friends. i'd tell them all the awful truths that i was hiding.

i'm pretty sure i'd become much more tolerant of people that drive me crazy.

i'd spend all my money, but then, i'd probably have no job since the company would probably want to go out of business for the same reasons.

i'd buy my porsche on credit, then spend the rest of the time evading the repo guys since i have no money (see above point).

and ... oh yeah ... i'd stop wasting my time in front of a stupid computer ... that's for damn sure!

 

[Mark Dill]

Don't forget - you are still going to live a full and normal life. The only difference is that soon after you are gone, the whole world will be too. How does it change things?

 

[Holadem]

Very interesting question.

You still have all your life a head of you , but no "posterity". Makes one wonder how much of of that enters in the way we live our existence.

Methinks I would be free from the desire to "make the world a better place" 'cause it ain't gonna be around for much longer.

Assuming most people believe the end of the world in a 100 years to be a fact (which is not at all a given):

Basically anything work being done to improve the human condition in general (pretty much any kind of research) will grind to a halt.

Enviremental issues will become vastly irrelevent.

Pursuit of wealth will still exist - no one wants to be poor.

And of course the inevitable dramatic rise in religious fundamentalism.

Just off the top of my head.

--
H

 

[Mort Corey]

Ted....the world is ending....what's the scoop

Mort (what always likes a good juicy story)

 

[David Brown Eyes]

I do not think I would change my behavior at all.

 

[MarkHastings]

True, but the big difference (as was already stated) would be about your family. Obviously children would be out of the question...well, maybe you could get away with it right now, but that would depend on what "the end" entailed...if life were to be "normal" up until that last year, then having kids should be ok for the next few years, but if we knew that the last 10-20 years were to be horrid, then maybe I'd think twice.

Other than that, only small things would affect my life. Yes, I'd no longer worry about recycling or global issues...kind of like my old Chevy Chevette (when it was on it's last leg) - "Ride it into the ground!"

BUT! What WOULD change my life, would be all the wackos who would end up doing radical things because of the news. I'm sure the world would get even worse because everyone would probably have a "F** it!" attitude...that would definitely have a big impact on our lives.

 

[Ted Lee]

as soon as i get scientific validation mort ... you'll be the first to know.

----

oh yeah, and don't forget that the r.e.m. song would get played INTO THE GROUND!!!

 

[MarkHastings]

Damn it! You just reminded me of New Years '99 and that damn Prince song "1999".

 

[Ted Lee]

my work here is done ...

 

[Ricardo C]

I think the biggest impact such knowledge would have on my life is that I would not want to have children, since they or their children might end up being doomed to be around when the world ends.

I would try to continue to live life normally, pursuing all my work and leisure interests with the same passion as before, because even if there wouldn't be a future, there is still a present, and the lack of a future gives us all the more reason to live life to the fullest.



Which means I would finally get the SUV I've been secretly covetting, and wouldn't feel guilty about it

 

[Glenn Overholt]

You could read or see "On the Beach". True, it is only post WWIII, but it is basically the same.

I think the bible has some stuff on that too.

I think we'd be sending out space probes to find another planet. Let's not forget Star Trek's "Space Seed".

We'd end up making gigantic space ships and shipping everyone off, in hibernation maybe, but it would better than ending our race.

Glenn

 

[Ricardo C]

Depends on when it happened...

The fastest starship I've ever heard of is the never-built Deadalus probe, which can theoretically reach as much as 12.5% light speed, which means the journey to the nearest star would still take over 30 years, and that's for an unmanned probe with no human cargo. And let's not even go into the logistics of sustaining such a large human population, or the costs of building large enough ships to carry them, and the massive amounts of power it would take to propel it to the above-mentioned speed. There just wouldn't be enough time or resources to save more than a small sample of mankind.

And even if the ship could be built, there's still the matter of finding a suitable home. Terraforming a hostile world would take centuries, unless we managed to find a perfect Earth-like planet, which would probably be full of alien microbes that would wipe us out before we could spell "curse ye, puny earth-only immune system!" anyway.

Yeah, I'm pessimistic :-p

 

[Jason Hughes]

Cocaine. Lots of cocaine.

 

[Carl Johnson]

I don't think that knowing the world will end in 2105 would change my life much if at all. I'm not likely to live to be 130 and if I were to start a family any time over the next twenty years my kids would have an excellent chance of dying of old age before the end.
A more interesting and disturbing thought is how would life change if the world was ending in 20, 10, or 1 year. That would be just cause to stock up on powerful drugs and powerful firearms

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Thanks in part to John Maynard Keynes and his famous dictum, "In the long run, we're all dead", most of the world's governments and much of its population have been living as if the world were about to end for a good seventy years now. Look around you! People are buying things on credit with no hope of ever paying for them; people are refusing to reproduce in droves; people are joining strange apocalyptic cults at rapid rates; people are fighting just for entertainment; people are working for short-term gain with no interest in the long-term consequences -- everything you would predict in a society which knew itself to be doomed.

Just food for thought. Me, I choose the leopard over the anteater.

 

[David Nguyen]

I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man.

 

[Jan H]

The world will end when I die.

 

[BrianW]

Instead of devoting my life to making the world better place for future generations, I'd devote my life to making the world better place for past generations.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Orgies!