What are our greatest existential threats?

IMHO (no particular order):

Unfriendly AI
Bioweapon
Nuclear war
Natural disease (perhaps anti-bacteria resistant bug)
Nanotechnology
Climate Change
Deleterious mutation load (most dangerously lowering IQ)

The collapse of our moral character is a good one to put up ther.e

Russia of course

Super Volcanos are pretty cool.

Originally posted by Ultra Instinct.
Russia of course

I did read today that officials confirmed that Russia was able to scramble our drones. That's a bit troubling.

Originally posted by The Ellimist
IMHO (no particular order):

Unfriendly AI
Bioweapon
Nuclear war
Natural disease (perhaps anti-bacteria resistant bug)
Nanotechnology
Climate Change
Deleterious mutation load (most dangerously lowering IQ)

Probably the AI thing.

Even AI we can control is terrifying because who gets to control it? Some megalomaniacal ******* in government? Some moral busybody who thinks they know best for the world but don't? Someone genuinely malevolent?

Also even if we do control it the right way and bring about the "utopia," how would we cope with a world with infinite instant gratification? Would a constant state of hedonism be properly satisfying? What would such a world spell for the cultivation of human character?

Children thinking they are born with an ACTUAL GENDER!

We gotta put a stop to this nonsense.

Of those choices I'd go for bioweapons or aggressive AI, you can't rule out climate change though, we are long overdue for another ice age after all.

We aint come fully out of the CURRENT Ice Age yet.

Yes we have. The last ice age ended roughly 12,000 years ago, we are now in what is known as an interglacial, a period where the planet warms up and thaws out the ice from the previous ice age (also known as glacials) so that the cycle can begin again.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
The collapse of our moral character is a good one to put up ther.e

Anyway, my prime candidate would be antibiotic resistant bacteria by far. Next as a threat (but not necessarily the end of humanity) would be bioweapons/nuclear war, but it's a big step before my first cadidate.

Originally posted by BackFire
I did read today that officials confirmed that Russia was able to scramble our drones. That's a bit troubling.

Not the full story, they were able to scramble some of our lower end, non weaponized ones. They were not able to scramble any weaponized drones.

I'd say climate change. Everything else is avoidable and with decent foreknowledge (or just plain luck) shouldn't evolve into an issue at all. Climate change is already happening and not nearly enough is being done about it. IIRC we've already gone past the point where its reversible.

It won't wipe out humanity (I don't think) but it may threaten civilisation as we know it.

Internet discussion boards.

Originally posted by Digi
Internet discussion boards.

Did laugh Digi btw! You'll always be one of my favourite posters mate.

Originally posted by Putinbot1
Did laugh Digi btw! You'll always be one of my favourite posters mate.

👆

I'll always be one of my favorite posters as well.

Originally posted by Digi
👆

I'll always be one of my favorite posters as well.

Originally posted by samhain
Yes we have. The last ice age ended roughly 12,000 years ago, we are now in what is known as an interglacial, a period where the planet warms up and thaws out the ice from the previous ice age (also known as glacials) so that the cycle can begin again.

That's not correct. Glaciologically, we are still in an ice age because there are still ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres. This is the same argument that happens when some people call tomatoes a vegetable when it is botanically a fruit.

When the glaciation disappears from both the northern and southern hemispheres, you can then state that the ice age has finally ended.