The world could end in 25 years, says Oxford scientist

Happy Sunday!

13 years since those doomy days of 2012, which saw the Mayan calendar misinterpreted by what seemed like half of the world's population who convinced themselves that natural disasters would extinguish all life on our planet, Oxford University scientists are now predicting even more apocalyptic events in our not-so-distant future.

Toby Ord, a futurologist, believes that artificial intelligence will bring about the End Times within the next 75 years, while award-winning writer Jared Diamond takes pessimism to an even greater level by suggesting our species' chance of survival beyond 2050 is no higher than 50% (per MailOnline).

A similarly glass-half-empty mind, Cambridge University's Dr. Luke Kemp - author of the book Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse and a senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk - draws his dark conclusions from our historical failures.

In his book, Kemp refers to the 'Goliath' empires scattered across human history that eventually collapsed under their own greed. Every civilisation has been 'self-terminating' according to him, with the gross misbalance of wealth between the rich and the poor leading to ultimate destruction.

There's also the Carrington Event of 1859 to consider: when the sun unleashed massive electromagnetic solar flares that would effectively kill all of today's advanced electrical infrastructure.

If this was to occur again, we wouldn't have satellites, computers, the internet, phone networks, a banking system, or a working health service - not to mention the loss of many cars and planes. It wouldn't take long for absolute bedlam to kick in.

The probability of this happening is estimated to rise 20.3% every decade, reaching 50% by the time 2050 rolls around, and Kemp went on to theorise how the uber-rich would respond.

He forecasts "an entire industry of reinforced, luxury bunker-manors with pools, wine vaults, artificial gardens for sunbathing in simulated sunlight, and underground hydroponic farms, from Texas to the Czech Republic... in one case, with a dozen ex-Navy special forces SEALs."

God speed.