I am fairly certain that people have been predicting the end of the world for a long time. In my brief lifetime, doomsayers have predicted catastrophic end-of-civilization scenarios including:
- Nuclear war with the USSR (1960s-1991 fall of USSR)
- Killer Bees invading the US (mid 1970s)
- Nuclear War with North Korea or Iran (1970s – present day)
- War with China (present day)
- Ebola Plague decimating society (2014?)
- Covid decimating society (2020-2023)
- The “Next” Pandemic which will be worse (present day)
- Overpopulation (1970s-2000s)
- Underpopulation (2010s to present day)
- Global Warming (2000-present day)
- Global Freezing (pre Global Warming)
- Armageddon from various religions’ myths (forever)
- Mass starvation
- Water shortages
- Robots taking over the world and killing human (1984 – present, started with Terminator movie)
- Computers taking over humanity (1999 to present, fueled by The Matrix)
- Terrorism
- Nuclear Reactor failures (1970s to present day)
- Peak Oil (running out of oil, 1970s to present)
- UFO’s landing and enslaving or killing humans
- Asteroid wiping out the planet
- Giant volcano eruption blotting out the sun forever
These are just the ones I could list of the top of my head. With a little googling, I’m sure I could add dozens more to this list.
It’s clear that many people like to predict doomsday scenarios. I suspect it’s partly due to our monkey brains, partly due to some survival mechanism, partly due to greed from money grubbing scammers and partly because it’s fun for some people.
I don’t need to ponder doomsday scenarios.
I had many bad life experiences already. Few were horrific. None were life ending (for me). But they were life altering, awful and significant.
One day I am going to die. I am certain of that.
So will all of us.
The likelihood of it happening in some mundane way seems high. Old age, infirmity, cancer, a car accident, a fire, disease, etc.
If it happens due to some major doomsday scenario coming true – so be it.
Dead is dead.
I’m not the least bit worried about dying.
I do get a little spooked when I ponder a dystopian future of living after a doomsday scenario. So Avoid thinking about this stuff. I don’t watch dystopian movies. I don’t read dystopian novels. I don’t allow myself to go down ratholes of thought about “what if?” worst case scenarios that I make up in my head.
For me, that’s not entertainment.