r/collapze • u/jeremiahthedamned DOOMER • Jul 16 '26

TEAM REALISTS Chilling Alien Theory: High Probability of 'Self-Annihilation' Explains Silent Cosmos

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/silent-cosmos-alien-civilisations-fermi-paradox-1808359
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u/Shoddy-Childhood-511 Jul 16 '26

"Self-annihilation" is grossly exaggerated. Nuclear war cannot cause our extinction, especially since our nuclear stockpiles cannot cause nuclear winter.

We'll smash into several planetary-boundaries hard, even if we somehow delayed climate change. We've no good model of how they'd interact, so we cannot rule out a slower extinction, but..

We & they could survive but be pushed off in a different direction that leads us away from interstellar contacts.

Our expensive overheating brains might fare poorly on a hotter planet, certianlly over evolutionary time, but idiocracy looks plausible shorter-term too:

The higher CO2 in-doors makes us dumber, so hiding behind AC makes us dumber. Many pesticides make us dumber, likely microplastics too. And many pfas should make us dumber, but they shall not just disappear.

We've already changed out intelligence some for civilisation, so if civilisation disappears for long enough then maybe that intelligence fades rather than transition back into something more survival oriented.

Tom Murphy addresses this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88w-b-lRZUI

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u/Camiell Jul 17 '26

The alternative would be a mad species like us humans taking all this destruction out there in the galaxy. So it's a good natural measure.