I like the OP. Solid lineup to chose from.

After watching an episode of Computerphile I'm stuck on stamp collecting AI.

AI sends out strings of data until it finds some stamps on ebay
AI commits fraud to buy all the ebay stamps
AI scams the worlds philatelists into handing over their stamps
AI starts printing its own stamps
AI hijacks all the world's machinery and prints nothing but stamps
AI realises both stamps and humans are carbon based
AI harvests mankind for stamps

It's that or Funnybot.

The supervolcano in Yellowstone could immediately destroy much of North America and obviously affect global climate. It might be a lot like global nuclear war. Although it may be inevitable on a geological time scale, that's a big scale.

Regarding evolution of brains, big brains haven't always won and in a food scarce environment a giant brain isn't necessarily an asset.

There's a game where you play an AI that turns the entire universe into paper clips.

I played Plague Inc. a lot on my phone. You play as a contagion that escapes a lab and choose how to evolve. If you become too obvious everywhere shuts off their air and land transport. If you aren't lethal enough then you don't kill the world before a cure is found. And based on that game, move to Greenland. So hard to infect.

Surely Madagascar

Asteroids. Voted for nuclear war.

Intelligence seems like an asset with not much if any downside.

Adaptability is key, and intelligence delivers a lot in that regard.

How could it not help?

I really dont think superbugs are getting enough credit.

Hopefully there is to much self interest in play to nuke ourselves.

Disease is a real existential threat.

God damn you made me read this and now I'll never enjoy life again

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.4d37be79050a

And California jfc is that place doomed or what

I fear both disease and actual literal "super" bugs. I did a stint as a termite control tech between the army and college and this wasn't even that long ago...the stuff we used 20 years ago to control pests often don't work anymore. And the stuff we use now kills the good bugs like bees. WAAF

An earthquake can't compete globally but this one will leave a mark: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...really-big-one

This is a captivating article on the big earthquake coming to the Seattle area.

The entire west coast is lined with active volcanoes that for some reason everybody pretends don't exist.

Where you live you'll die just from being outside for a few hours without mounds of protective gear for a few months every year.

West Coast: You might die a horrible death from any number of unpredictable, cataclysmic ecological events, but at least you don't need a jacket!

Guess this is obligatory now:

Also would like to point out that death of objective reality is a bit nostalgic, we never had close to that.

Its more like the change from outright bull****ing of the peons that still allowed for a vaguely reasonable social contract to: wat the? was it you, or what, Russia, the bazooker was who? Fake fakeness.

I'm not concerned about global catastrophes that will probably never happen and that I have no control over. If I'm going to worry it will be about things like drunk drivers and cancer.

I heard that Elon Musk was working on a plant to extract all of the molten rock under the surface and depositing it on the moon

How will that end humanity? 4 billion drunks simultaneously crashing into 4 billion cancer-stricken sober people seems a little unlikely.

The drunk driver singularity -- yes. All of the above are stand-ins for global warming. Maybe refugee crisis will touch off nuclear war, or attempts to control roiling masses of have-nots will bring on the robot apocalypse, or somehow we'll be wiped out by the drunk driver rapture. It's the heat, stupid.

He appears to be saying that the global stuff doesn't worry him, the stuff that worries him is the stuff that might affect him personally.

Yeah, I got that from his post. The joke phrasing wasn't perfect and a phone call came in before I could ninja edit.

I don't get the worry - volcanoes in California are, like, Shasta? Lassen? This one in the snippet near Mammoth? Those areas are super rural. Of course people worry more about earthquakes, they happen to urban areas.

here is how the oh so tolerant left deals with people who dispute man made global warming.






Climate Depot’s Marc Morano:

This is just the latest in a long history of threatening emails that I have received. My book, The politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change details many more:

Excerpt from book: (
Read: Bonus chapter: Intimidating the ‘Deniers’ to Enforce the ‘Consensus’ – Climate ‘deniers’ threatened with being ‘thrown in jail’)

Hate Mail Bag:

Here is a small sampling of the hate mail I have received in recent years:

“Let’s meet man to man and I’ll rip that stupid smile off your face.”

“If you have children, I hope beyond hopes that you must bury them, and that your grief will know no end.”

“You and your children should be burned in public.”

“Hi I just wanted to let you know what a goddamn stupid lying idiot you are. I really hope you are someday put on trial before a world tribunal on charges of ‘crimes against humanity.’ . . . .

You are an evil little **** and you have your head so far up your ass, you can tickle your tonsils when you wiggle your ears. **** you, ‘moron-o.’”

“Thank you for being one of the biggest *******s on planet Earth and for helping to doom every living ecosystem. . .Go **** yourself.”

“I will have a nice long drive up to DC and have a very short and unpleasant conversation with your ass if you dont [sic] stop harrassing [sic] scientists.”

“I hope they hang you and the rest of the stooges for the fossil fuel industry.”

Here is today’s hate mail – April 25, 2018:


Anonymous ****you@idiot.die via mail.wpengine.com


10:22 AM (7 minutes ago)

to morano
** This is a contact submission made from a widget on Climate Depot **

From: Anonymous
Email: ****you@idiot.die
Message: If you can’t understand what climate change is and how it works, you’re either a very stupid fool or you get paid tons of money by those oil lobbies that are destroying our world. People like you should just die, mother****er. Oh, anyone can hack your anti spam system for this ****ty form. Go to hell.