Apocalypse: Researchers reveal the 12 most likely ways human civilisation may end

Researchers at Oxford University have compiled a ‘scientific assessment about the possibility of oblivion’.

17:50 16 February 2015

Researchers from the Global Challenges Foundation and the Future of Humanity Institute have listed 12 most likely ways that human civilisation may come to a premature end.

“[This research] is about how a better understanding of the magnitude of the challenges can help the world to address the risks it faces, and can help to create a path towards more sustainable development,” the study’s authors said.

“It is a scientific assessment about the possibility of oblivion, certainly, but even more it is a call for action based on the assumption that humanity is able to rise to challenges and turn them into opportunities.”

The following are most likely ways human civilisation may collapse according to the researchers:

1.    Extreme climate change
2.    Nuclear war
3.    Global pandemic
4.    Major asteroid impact
5.    Super volcano
6.    Ecological catastrophe
7.    Global system catastrophe
8.    Synthetic biology (for the building of an ‘engineered pathogen’ to cause oblivion)
9.    Nanotechnology (for the easy construction of nuclear arsenals)
10.    Artificial intelligence (that would boost their intelligence far beyond our own)
11.    Future bad global governance (that fails to solve existing issues or creates new ones)
12.    Unknown consequences