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The End

The End is a vague term that describes a hypothetical point of time in the future where humanity, civilization, or the planet would be at risk of being endangered, destroyed, or demolished. It's not an immediate issue, but it's one that generations often ponder about from time to time.

This isn't meant to be some deep, comprehensive article, so there may be inaccuracies.

Religious eschatology

Non-Abrahamic religions

  • Buddhism: The Buddha stated that his teachings of dharma would be lost about 5,000 years after his death, around 4518~4601 CE. Society would regress before Maitreya, a future Buddha, becomes enlightened and reteaches dharma. However, the Sermon of the Seven Suns also states that the world will eventually set ablaze by seven suns.
  • Hinduism: We currently live in the final yuga of the Yuga Cycle, the Kali Yuga, associated with the demon Kali and characterized as a godless, dark age where humans are malicious and vile. This ends around 428,899 CE when Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu, descends on a white horse with an army to purify the world and sends us back into another Satya Yuga.
  • Norse Mythology: Ragnarök starts off with a great battle between the Gods, led by Odin, and the forces of Chaos, led by Loki. This results in numerous casualties and natural disasters that submerge the world in water, but then the world resurfaces and the surviving Gods meet up to declare that Líf and Lífþrasir will repopulate the Earth.
  • Zoroastrianism: Frashokereti describes a clash between good (yazata) and evil (daeva). It ends with the yazatas winning, Saoshyant revives the dead, then a last judgment is cast where mankind must wade through a river of molten metal that decides their fate. The righteous (ashavan) pass through as evil is eradicated and welcomed into Ahura Mazda.

Abrahamic religions

  • Christianity: There are five concepts: the Second Coming of Christ, the Rapture where all living and dead Christians are taken to God, the Great Tribulation which is just a short period of hardships, the Millennium which appears to be a long period of paradise, then we see the Last Judgment at the very end. However, the orders of all these events are debated.
  • Islam: As people commit crimes and sins, Mahdi shows up and Isa returns in order to fight the false messiah, the Dajjal. Yajuj and Majuj escape prison and start wreaking havoc, so people pray and God attacks them. The Mecca is attacked and the Kaaba is destroyed, so the Beast of the Earth is unleashed, then believers are sorted to Jannah or Jahannam.
  • Judaism: Jewish people are exiled out of the Land of Israel, so God returns to reclaim their land, then he restores the House of David and the Third Temple of Jerusalem. Nations begin to recognize God as the true God, then God eventually resurrects the dead and creates a new Heaven and Earth dubbed “the world to come,” sort of like a Garden of Eden.

Global catastrophic risks

Internal threats

  • Artificial Intelligence: There's a fear that learning computers would gain super-intelligence and go rogue as a result, attempting to eradicate humanity or intellectual rivals, but this fictional scenario is extremely unlikely in the near future as robots still have their flaws and can't fully replace human labor.
  • Climate Change: One close threat is global warming, projected to make sea levels rise, diseases spread rapidly, frequent extreme weather, etc. This is mainly controversial due to capitalism1) and we'll likely see surface temperatures increase to a point of no return unless society collapses.
  • Environmental Disaster: In short, humans can do many things to wreck biomes and biodiversity, so nature will occasionally give humans their comeuppance, not knowing some of them live elsewhere.
  • Nanotechnology: Nanotechnology is real and there are concerns about its active use, specifically its affects on health, environment, etc.
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction: While IHL forbids biological and chemical warfare, it technically say nothing about nuclear weapons. In theory, it can create a nuclear winter, but not a so-called nuclear holocaust. Recently, the possibility of nuclear war has been reignited as with deals and treaties expiring, nuclear modernization continues, and global military spending remains high.

External threats

  • Asteroid Impact: There's a lot of asteroids in space that could collide with earth, but nobody's ever certain when an impact event would happen. In addition, there's no real contingency plan for it.
  • Extraterrestrials: Extraterrestrial life has never been documented, but most scientists believe they could. While an alien invasion is possible, it's unlikely that aliens would just arrive to enslave or exterminate humanity, deplete our resources, or randomly destroy the Earth. Then again, some people think we can just move to Mars despite humanity not adapting to true solar radiation.
  • Global Pandemic: Humanity can be easily wiped out if nature decides to invent a widespread disease with the ability to cause an epidemic. It has happened before, and it could happen again.

Notes

  • Many people have attempted to predict apocalyptic events, but haven't had much success.
  • It's an odd thought, but some doomsday cults actively follow religious eschatology and attempt to initiate events (e.g. red heifer) that would result in the end coming a lot sooner.
  • There's also the threat of the Sun becoming a red giant, but that's way far from being a concern.
the_end.txt · Last modified: 2024-09-23 00:24:07 by 127.0.0.1