Would you Really want to see it?

I'd like to see the end of the world once, you know, just to see what it's like.

Absolutely. In fact, I would sacrifice a great deal - if not everything I had - to see the end of the earth. When I was younger, I had my nihilistic phase like many others. I always imagined that seeing the end of the world would be extremely cathartic. Now, even though I am no longer a nihilist by any real measure, that emotion/expectation stuck with me. I can't really explain it, that's just the way I am.

I am under no illusion that I am significant in the world, but I guess I should be ready for the possibility that I am responsible for the end of the earth. If that would be the case, I would probably wish after it happened that I hadn't watched it. However, that possibility wouldn't stop me from watching in the first place.

I think not...My most fervent hope is that the human condition will improve, that my friends and loved ones will be happy and well. How would that occur if the world were to end?

To see the world end would mean the death of my children and grandchildren...why would I want to see such a thing?

Of course I would...13 woman and I'm the only man in town.

I would love to see earth swallowed by the fires of sun when it starts to expand in a couple of billion years. Don't you think that would be amazingly beautiful?

And who's to say your not already seeing it? I don't mean because of the oil spill going in right now...that's just more fuel for the fire we started the minute we started polluting and altering the air, land and sea which were at one time ideal for habitation. We foolishly think we're smart and just plod along making decisions that affect the future of this planet on a daily basis...and just because we don't see the immediate results of our actions we think every things cool and we can just keep doing it. Silly humans!

as long as they dont play any of today's "pop" songs thinking erroniously that it is good music. I'd find it amusing if they played the "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish" song from the begining of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie while the Earth is being consumed in a blaze of glory.

Well first off, I'm not so sure your dichotomy between life and death / creation and destruction is necessarily true.  I would argue that humans have created more than they have destroyed.  We've simply done more with the room and resources we've got.  In a stable ecology at a given point in time, your position may hold true.  But just think Richard Feynman: there's always room at the bottom!  Insteading of "burning old books" in the library to make room for new ones, we invent the microchip so that we may simply store them all on an object that occupies less space.

Now as for the question, it's tricky.  There are two ways to look at it really: the end of the earth and the end of human life.   The end of the earth would surely be some predictable cosmic event with human life already having already expired before that point.  So as far as the end of the Earth is concerned I'd check it out in a heartbeat.  The end of humans as a species would be a lot more interesting and unpredictable though and hold deeper ramifications.  To me, seeing the end of the human species is a bit like seeing the end of a movie.  I don't really want to see the end until I've reached the end.  So I suppose I wouldn't be interested in seeing the end of the human species until I was very nearly dead myself.

And that's not to say I have any special attachment to the human species.  I'd be more interested to see if our end meant passing the torch to some other entity (of our creation, perhaps?)  I'd be relieved to see the human species expire and a more up-to-date being rise from our ashes.

...even reading the book of revelations (the prophesied end of the world) makes me cry, and sends shivers down my spine........ so my answer is no.

Id rather be six feet under....but ive always thought it would make one hell of a movie...provocative and eye opening..(the book of revelations i mean)

Run into anyone who's come back to tell you it isn't?

Yes. I would.

Only if theres no ads 

Unless it happens suddenly and without warning within the next maybe 50 years, the end of the world will not be the end of humanity. I suspect once we start colonizing other planets it will be impossible to wipe us out.

I wouldn't mind watching the Earth destroyed on "TV" (or whatever it's called then) from another planet or star system though. I mean if it was going to happen anyway I'd like to witness it. It would probably be breathtaking in many ways.

Out of curioisty I'd understand to want to see and feel it. But you suppose that you actually have the time for it. Maybe you were sleeping!!!  Also, if you believe in some sort of afterlife, it can make sense. If you don't, it really doesn't matter because once dead, it is permadead (character deleted completely. The matter that composed you may "reincarnate" in other things but.... well, not the same thing).

What do you guys mean 'would I like to see the end of the world'. The greatest irony is that its happening in slow motion right now, and nobody is noticing to the point that you think its some other time you have to go to visit.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100510/ts_afp/unenvironmentbiodiversityeconomy

The oil runs out in about 20-50 years depending who you ask - I suspect sooner rather than later, at which point fertilizer and gasoline (to run combines, tractors, etc... and distribute the products) dependent agriculture collapses. I suppose at that point, in our brilliance we will turn to burning coal, which will make everything ELSE worse. In the meantime, all the resources we could use to feed the planet have been reduced to monocultures that are brittle with respect to any sort of natural or unnatural shock. 

Well, I guess the planet doesn't end, but civilization probably will. The ball of iron will go on spinning merrily through space. Although the oceans will boil off in about a billion years. So its not like life will have time to try again on this planet.

Fortunately, life has all of time and space to try again.

We aren't as dependent on oil as the oil industry might make you think. A quarter of the electricity made by the US is nuclear, and that number could jump quickly and dramatically if the government simply allowed it. A great number of farms (and their machines) across the country run entirely on bio-diesel made with corn. We already have prototype hydrogen fuel cells running cars and the only thing hold them back from replacing current gas driven cars is the cost, which is quickly dropping and could enter the target range within the next few years. We don't need oil or coal at all, they are simply the most profitable sources of energy and our world revolves around money. We could run out of oil next year and still not falter (assuming we had a year to prepare).

I'd like to see it, and know how it all happens, but I would not want to experience it.

That is the most "Human" response there is to this thread, and I mean that in a good way, my good Doc. This is probably the most common answer for anyone in their late 30's and above. The older a person gets, the more likely this would be the response to this type of question. With age comes wisdom and responsibility. The desire to see destruction wanes as one grows into our elderly years. As we begin to come to terms with the honest realization that our lives must end, we think more about the creation of new life and the want to know that life will go on after we are gone, and that we will be remembered.

Indeed we are already seeing it. Most people are too stupid to see the signs of climate change. Whether or not scientists have faked things and said we humans aren't responsible. Even if we're not, we Can Not Deny what is going on around us. I explain more after my replies at the bottom. Read on, my friend, read on.

That song? Really? That song? Come on man, I can think of some way better tunes to end the world to. Maybe some Type-O, or some NiN, or even something classical like Beethoven or Bach. To each their own I suppose. The world is ending, listen to what you will, my friend.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood... Rev 6:12 <---- that's from memory, not Google. I'm not a heavy believer in The Bible, but if there's one thing the "Prophets" knew, it was how to follow patterns and signs. It's happened in the past, and it will happen again in the future. I explain more below.

I would like to think that too, but.... Even if we manage to get off the Earth, if we don't leave our Solar System before the Sun either goes "Super-Nova" or becomes a "Dwarf", we're all still screwed.

There are many resources running out and becoming scarce, not just oil. I do indeed agree though, when the oil runs out things will only get worse, not better. We'll turn to cheaper sources of fuel that damage the environment even more then what we do now and we'll kill ourselves off even faster.

Most people think that the end of us, Humans, is the "End of the World", but it is not. The Earth will continue on without us for a very long time still and most likely retain the ability to support life, just not "Human" life. Scientists have discovered many things in the last few years that honestly should blow people's minds away but doesn't. Allow me to elaborate.

Did you know that Scientists now know that All Major Life on the Planet has been extinguished Five Times? That's right, Five Times in the last Four Billion Years. If you'd like proof you can fact-check me. Go here: http://www.dimaggio.org/Evolution/5major.htm .

The 5 Major Extinctions
suffered by life on planet Earth (so far)

Here are details of the five worst mass extinctions in Earth’s history and their possible causes, according to paleobiologist Doug Erwin of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Erwin said estimates of extinction rates are from the late John J. Sepkoski at the University of Chicago:

Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction: about 65 million years ago, probably caused or aggravated by impact of several-mile-wide asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater now hidden on the Yucatan Peninsula and beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Some argue for other causes, including gradual climate change or flood-like volcanic eruptions of basalt lava from India’s Deccan Traps. The extinction killed 16 percent of marine families, 47 percent of marine genera (the classification above species) and 18 percent of land vertebrate families, including the dinosaurs.

End Triassic extinction: roughly 199 million to 214 million years ago, most likely caused by massive floods of lava erupting from the central Atlantic magmatic province -- an event that triggered the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The volcanism may have led to deadly global warming. Rocks from the eruptions now are found in the eastern United States, eastern Brazil, North Africa and Spain. The death toll: 22 percent of marine families, 52 percent of marine genera. Vertebrate deaths are unclear.

Permian-Triassic extinction: about 251 million years ago. Many scientists suspect a comet or asteroid impact, although direct evidence has not been found. Others believe the cause was flood volcanism from the Siberian Traps and related loss of oxygen in the seas. Still others believe the impact triggered the volcanism and also may have done so during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. The Permian-Triassic catastrophe was Earth’s worst mass extinction, killing 95 percent of all species, 53 percent of marine families, 84 percent of marine genera and an estimated 70 percent of land species such as plants, insects and vertebrate animals.

Late Devonian extinction: about 364 million years ago, cause unknown. It killed 22 percent of marine families and 57 percent of marine genera. Erwin said little is known about land organisms at the time.

Ordovician-Silurian extinction: about 439 million years ago, caused by a drop in sea levels as glaciers formed, then by rising sea levels as glaciers melted. The toll: 25 percent of marine families and 60 percent of marine genera.
 
There have been Five Major Extinction events in Earth's history. ALL Five of those were powerful enough to end Human Civilization. Some life did survive, mostly microbiotic organisms and other forms of microbial life. everything animal sized and all major forms of plant life were wiped clean. Reboot, start over, end game, done. Five Times.

We've also learned through the study of Plate Tectonics that the very ground we walk and build on today is being recycled by the Earth. Each continental plate has a "Subduction Zone" where it is being pushed under the plate beside it. In places like this on the globe we have fault lines. Now through the invention of GPS positioning we can actually measure this rate at which new land is made and old land is divided and swallowed by subduction. The plates are moving at a speed that has been as low as 1 to as high as 10 cm per year. <---- Can Fact Check that too if you like. Try these two sites for a better explanation of Plate Tectonics. http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/tectonic.htm and http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml . It will take a few more Million years, but all the land we are standing on Right Now will eventually be made into molten lava once again and sent back down into the mantle of the planet. Eventually, there wouldn't be Any Trace that Humans even existed. We can't build anything tough enough or strong enough that it will survive this process. Eventually, some day, maybe even Billions of years later, everything will get pulled below a tectonic plate.

Those were the Facts. Knowing that, and knowing that the Planet Earth is roughly Four Billion Years old, what are the chances that another form of life evolved on this planet Millions upon Millions of Years ago that evolved to be highly intelligent as we are? Is it Impossible? I don't think so. Another higher form of life could have existed on this planet that was just as advanced as we are and there could be No Evidence of it left. It would have all gotten taken down into the mantle of the planet and melted down into magma and the elements we use today. There would be no bones or fossils, no buildings older then the pyramids, and nothing to find no matter how deep you dug. Everything will have been recycled through the last couple of Billion Years.

What I do know for sure is that if we don't get off this rock, as a Species, and out of this Solar system, when the Sun goes out....so do we. Period. Way before that happens though our planet will face Drastic Climate Changes that Humanity may or may not survive. Unless we change the ways we think, work, and live, we'll kill ourselves and our environment way before the Sun ever goes out. Will there be enough time left for another form of higher more intelligent life to evolves and escape the planet before the Sun goes out? Who knows?!?!?! So let's hope we all wise up and open our eyes and see what's going on around us and what the planet is telling us. Things are changing and the changes are speeding up. You don't need to be religious or even have a religious belief to see it, either. The signs are all over the place to the people who are truly observant. Weather patterns, Cosmic Patterns, the cycles of nature that have sustained our way of life for thousands of years. These things happen both slowly, and fast, and you can only tell "it's coming", but never know exactly when. Are we doomed to be lost and forgotten? To be the next higher form of life's "oil" as the Dinosaurs are our Oil today?

You, ladies and gentlemen can make that choice. All of us can. We have to make that choice and take that step though and we can't let crooked politicians and businessmen make those decisions for us and take those steps, because they won't. We must change....or it will be too late for all of us.

Just think about it.

Unfortunately nobody will make that choice...and it's already to late. People have become accustomed to being lazy...and as far as thinking about it.............that's about how long people will think about it. I'd love to see change happen but I've had to accept the fact that it's just not going to happen.

Well....someone's life's gonna end.....Remember, dear Raven, after one of my prescriptions...well, one might quoth, "Nevermore".

Yep, who am I gonna knock up next?   {not all that elderly yet, Raven...}

[WebGizmos made me do it. And I told her father, "I blame skinhit!"]

LoL I wasn't calling you "old", my friend. I was using your reply to show the standard transgressions of our thinking patterns as we age.

So...um...are you threatening my life there with a prescription? Because I got doctors for that already

That will easily happen. Our sun isn't going to become a red giant and consume the Earth for another 5 billion years. We already have a general idea on how to create a wormhole to allow faster than light travel, we simply don't have the technology to do it yet. Considering how far we've come in the past 100 years, wormholes probably aren't that far off.

Even without faster than light travel though we could send self sustaining arks out that could travel to distant stars over tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years. We wouldn't even need that though, our sun is only going to become a red giant and expand to just beyond the Earth's current orbit before collapsing into a white dwarf, the planets outside that area will be mostly unphased. We could watch our sun die from a moon on Jupiter. Jupiter itself gives off enough radiation that we wouldn't need the sun any more.

Well, if we're drifting into possibilities, I'd say a rapid advancement in our technology, after seeing how far we've come in the last hundred years, is probably likely, assuming we last that long. Still, lets talk about numbers where the sun is concerned. The sun puts off massive amounts of radiation. When it turns into a red giant that radiation level will grow, as will the sun its-self.

Even on a moon of Jupiter, without some kind of advanced shielding we'd still fry like eggs. The only things keeping us safe right now is the "Perfect" distance that we are from the sun, plus our Atmosphere. Without BOTH of those working in conjunction we wouldn't exist. This is why Scientists are looking for worlds in other solar systems that have water and are a certain distance from their own sun. They can do this with radio telescopes by detecting types of radiation emanated from stars and worlds with certain elements on them.

I'm sure with the super-tech of the future all those things might be possible. How-ever I think it's way more likely that we'll either kill ourselves off first or the climate will change and we'll all die off before getting that far.