All of the typical threats to humanity found in dystopian movies are on today’s infographic, from evolved diseases that create sweeping plagues to climate change, and even vengeful robots. The difference? These threats are real. What constitutes a real threat to humanity?
Any mass incident on the horizon that results in a collapse of civilization and leads to a drastic decrease in global human population for an extended period, along with the crash of political, economic, and social systems.
The following is a list of the most pressing issues that could sweep away humanity in the next 100 years, unless we reverse course and take action:
- Artificial Intelligence: Machines that develop a primal consciousness and unlimited intelligence might look at humans as a threat to themselves or the environment as a whole. With the ability to shut down the resources we need to survive, AI could eventually end us all.
- Extreme Climate Change: Climate change could create a nightmare of famine, mass migration, and destructive weather events like relentless hurricanes, tsunamis, flooding, and sweeping fires.
- Global Pandemic: An unknown infectious disease could spread rapidly because of large metropolitan areas and our advanced transportation network.
Other risks to humanity involve synthetic pathogens that could be engineered by a terrorist group or nation, self-replicating nano-machines that could consume all of the Earth’s biomass, a nuclear war that creates a nuclear winter or destroys the ozone layer, or a significant asteroid impact.
Issues with AI, climate change, and infectious disease must be stomped out on a local level. Large nations and their governments are subject to lobbying and corruption, but individuals and groups can work with community leaders to regulate their municipalities to ensure a safer future for our planet and its guardians, as a whole.
