Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction

wiredog sends in a study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Center For Biosecurity, assessing risks of human extinction and the costs of preventing it. "In this century a number of events could extinguish humanity. The probability of these events may be very low, but the expected value of preventing them could be high, as it represents the value of all future human lives."

Summary of the article

[greenguy]

We could all die!!! But we probably won't. At least not right away.

Re:Why bother?

[gnick]

Sorry, human or not we're all doomed. Deal with it.
The Last Question [multivax.com]

Re:Why bother?

[gnick]

Sorry - I should have credited that. Short story by Isaac Asimov dealing with the end of life everywhere written in 1956.
Here's the wiki for anyone who just wants the gist without reading all 5 or 6 pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question [wikipedia.org]

Re:Let's Get a New Dominant Species On This Planet

[AndGodSed]

I don't know why but the term "go apeshit" always makes me laugh...

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

[juancnuno]

I thought this [wikipedia.org] was interesting.

Re:There is non-zero finite chance of extinction

[El Torico]

Yeah, and the Romans thought the Empire would last a thousand years.

It did; the Eastern Roman Empire a.k.a. the Byzantine Empire didn't come to an end until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire.

Re:Nuclear Decay in 1032 to 1041 years?

[thatseattleguy]

Methinks it would be good to RTFA again after checking your browser for the ability to display superscript fonts. That was 10^32 to 10^41 years, not "1032 to 1041" years. In other words, 100 million trillion trillion (give or take an order of magnitude) years at a minimum.