http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/09/30/timnwsnws01023.html

-- (@ .), October 01, 2000

Answers

Just another***DOOMZIE*** MORON.

-- (you_know_who@you_know.where), October 01, 2000.

"Only by settling on other planets could humanity guarantee its survival, he said."

What a bunch of baloney. If we can't solve our problems here, we'll just keep screwing up every other place we go too. I suspect that if we don't get with it and start limiting our populations voluntarily, mother nature will call in her old standbys... War, Famine, and Pestilence to even things out a bit.

My bet is that we won't, and therefore Were Doomed!

-- Mr. Doom (MrD@doomers.r.us), October 01, 2000.

I think Ceeper and Hawking outta duke it out! I'll put my money on Hawking.

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), October 01, 2000.

To suggest that settling on other planets could improve our survival, implies that creating and sustaining an artificial environment suitable for humans, would be easier on other planets than on Earth. That is debatable.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), October 01, 2000.

LOL!

Hawking is an optimisit, IMO.

Things to look forward to:

animal extinctions global warming thinning ozone nuclear war biological war chemical war new disease vectors growing disease resistance run-a-way nanotechnology coming petroleum exhaustion population explosion farmland erosion water pollution

We'll be extinct within 100 years.

-- homo-extinctus (homo-extinctus@xox.xox), October 01, 2000.

99% of all species that ever lived are extinct. I see no reason why mankind should escape the same fate.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), October 01, 2000.

I'm with ya on that one, Unk. The Permian extinctions [about 250 million years ago] claimed about 90% of the species of marine animals. Terrestrial life also crashed. 8 out of 27 orders of Permian insects didn't survive into the Triassic period. The Cretaceous extinctions [about 65 million years ago] also took their toll.

Humans are a very immature species, and unique in some ways. I know of no other species that will wage war with their own kind over something as simple as which side of the bread to butter. [my apologies to Mr. Seuss for the simplification of his "Bitter Butter Battle.] I know of no other species who develops a language and then uses it to belittle the other members of the species. We're really at the top of the chain, dontcha think?

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), October 01, 2000.

I know of no other species who would actually consider voting for someone like Gore based on the fact that he gave hiw wife a big smackarooni of a kiss. Yep we really are amazing creatures (and Gore just might make us extinct).

-- butt nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), October 01, 2000.

I didn't see the Gore "kiss" but, since everything is scripted these days, I have to assume that their handlers thought it thru well in advance, focus-grouped it and rehearsed it before cameras so as to get the best angle and lighting. No doubt Al and Tipper were coached by Hollywood kiss-experts on duration, tongues, breath control, etc. Of course Republicans would never do anything so calculated.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), October 01, 2000.

and JESUS said, all these things must happen--and then THE END!!

-- not surprised!! (dogs@zianet.com), October 02, 2000.

Sorry, but off-planet migration doesn't seem to fit the doomer world-view.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), October 02, 2000.

FINE, then. I'm gonna have a nice big juicy burger EVERY DAY. With EXTRA CHEESE AND BUTTER. High cholesterol my ass.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), October 02, 2000.

"I am afraid the atmosphere might get hotter and hotter until it will be like Venus with boiling sulphuric acid."

Looks like a fine source of sulphuric acid for the molten lava pit. Always trying to look at the silver lining.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), October 02, 2000.

Anita wrote, "I know of no other species that will wage war with their own kind over something as simple as which side of the bread to butter... I know of no other species who develops a language and then uses it to belittle the other members of the species. "

Correction: Many species do exactly that. Well, no necesarily butter their bread but fight over food, territory, and females of the species. Also, many that have developed a language do belittle other members. I remember a Jane Goodall findings that told of a female and her child actually killing another gorilla child and eating it.

There are so many things we just don't know, human behavior is at the top of the list, next to the questions of the universe that FS keeps asking.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), October 02, 2000.

Good point, Maria.

I often think that humans get into the most trouble thinking that their behavior is further removed from their biology than it acutally is.

{'Nita - gotta find you that sea anenome article, about the clones & their chemical warfare against their own kind. Cool stuff...}

-- flora (***@__._), October 02, 2000.

In a couple of billion years the sun will run out of its nuclear fuel. Right now its converting hydrogen to helium. As it runs out of hydrogen it will run up the elemental chart until it hits iron. Thats the final cycle. When that happens the sun turns into a red giant and its outer atmosphere expands to about the orbit of Mars. The earth and everything still on goes extinct. We (as a species) move or we die.

I suspect the people posting to the technological successor to this board will still be arguing about the meaning of Pollie and Doomer.

-- The Engineer (spcengineer@yahoo.com), October 02, 2000.