The Doomsday Argument | When Will Civilization End?

When will our civilization end? Whether it be by our own means or an external threat, there are many plausible scenarios which could extinguish humanity. Remarkably, using the Principle of Mediocrity (that we are just typical observers and not special) it is possible to answer this question statistically with a line of thought called the Doomsday Argument. We get into how this works and what it says about our prospects for survival... ::More about this Video:: ► Richard Gott (1993), "Implications of the Copernican principle for our future prospects": http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v363/n6427/abs/363315a0.html ► Fergus Simpson (2016), "Apocalypse Now? Reviving the Doomsday Argument": https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.03072 ► Carter & McCrea (1983): "The Anthropic Principle and its Implications for Biological Evolution [and Discussion]", http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/310/1512/347 ► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk ::Playlists For Channel:: Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorlds Cool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearch Guest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuests Q&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQA Science of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies ::Follow us:: SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribe Cool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.edu Twitter https://twitter.com/david_kipping Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worlds THANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices